Oldest Scheme Implementations

April 3, 2022 · text

Gambit Scheme claims to be the third-oldest, active Scheme implementation. It seemed like an interesting case study for the Lindy Effect, so I tracked down a few Scheme implementations for comparison.

This list is sorted from oldest to youngest. A ☠ indicates implementations that had fewer than 5 commits to their repository in 2021.

• R0RS 1975 ☠
• Rabbit 1978 ☠
• MIT/GNU Scheme 1979
• T 1982 ☠
• Chez Scheme 1985
• Oaklisp 1986 ☠
• Scheme 48 1987 ☠
• Gambit 1988
• SIOD 1988 ☠
• SCM 1990 ☠
• Guile 1993
• STklos 1993
• Bigloo 1995
• Racket 1995
• Kawa 1996
• Larceny 1998 ☠
• Chicken 2000
• Gauche 2001
• Scheme 9 from Empty Space 2007 ☠
• Ypsilon 2008
• Saggitarius 2011
• Gerbil 2016

Scheme was invented and R0RS published in 1975. R1RS is dated 1978. Three implementations have survived from Schemeʼs first decade: MIT, Chez, and Gambit.

Iʼd love to add notable, old, dead Schemes to this list. Mail me if you know of any: m.scm@ndrix.org