Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Scsh

Unix shell

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Scsh (a Scheme shell) is command-line shell derived from Scheme 48, an implementation of the Scheme programming language. It turns common POSIX shell features (string processing, file-name matching, input/output redirection, etc.) into a Scheme application programming interface in a manner to make the most of Scheme's ability for scripting. It is free and open-source software released under the BSD-3-Clause license.

Scsh, in its original form (a Scheme 48 fork), is limited to 32-bit platforms. There is a development version in the form of a Scheme 48 library that works in 64-bit mode.

01Features

Scsh includes these notable features:

02Example

  • Translation of the shell pipeline gunzip < paper.tex.gz | detex | spell | lpr -Ppulp &:
(& (| (gunzip) (detex) (spell) (lpr -Ppulp)) ; background a pipeline (< paper.tex.gz)) ; with this redirection #!/usr/local/bin/scsh -s !# (define (executables dir) (with-cwd dir (filter file-executable? (directory-files dir #t)))) (define (writeln x) (display x) (newline)) (for-each writeln (append-map executables ((infix-splitter ":") (getenv "PATH"))))

03"Acknowledgments"

The reference manual for Scsh includes a spoof Acknowledgments section written by Olin Shivers. It starts:

Who should I thank? My so-called "colleagues", who laugh at me behind my back, all the while becoming famous on my work? My worthless graduate students, whose computer skills appear to be limited to downloading bitmaps off of netnews? My parents, who are still waiting for me to quit "fooling around with computers," go to med school, and become a radiologist? My department chairman, a manager who gives one new insight into and sympathy for disgruntled postal workers?

and concludes with:

Oh, yes, the acknowledgements. I think not. I did it. I did it all, by myself.
Watch videos about ScshExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Scsh, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.