Meet DrScheme

DrScheme provides a convenient environment for students learning to program in Scheme. The program buffer is a regular editing buffer that automatically indents Scheme code when you hit RETURN or TAB. The Scheme buffer is a Scheme interpreter. You can click the mouse at any point in either buffer to type at that point.

Hitting RETURN in the Scheme buffer will cause the preceding expression to be evaluated, unless the parentheses don't balance in which case DrScheme will move to the next line. You can select text and hit RETURN at any point in the buffer to copy the selected text to the prompt.

When the cursor is next to a parenthesis, DrScheme will shade the region between this parenthesis and the matching parenthesis. If you type a ``)'' which matches a ``['' the ``)'' will be changed to a ``]'' automatically. If a closing parenthesis is not matched, DrScheme will beep. Quotation marks are also matched. Beware, anopening quote mark will actually match to the previous closing quote mark even though that isn't what you mean.

Generally when you program in DrScheme, you will begin by typing a new program into the program buffer or opening an existing file into the program buffer. As you program, try out expressions in the interactions buffer as necessary. You can check the syntax of the program buffer contents as well. When you are ready to run your program, press the Execute button. Now, if all went well you can test out with the interactions buffer. If an error occurs, DrScheme will report the source location of the error. Don't forget to save your files when you are done!