Make Scheme as easy to use and practical as Python!

Goldfish Scheme is a Scheme interpreter with the following features:

• R7RS-small compatible
• Python-like standard library
• Small and fast

Goldfish Scheme still follows the same principle of simplicity as S7 Scheme. Currently, Goldfish Scheme only depends on S7 Scheme, tbox and C++ standard library defined in C++ 98.

Just like S7 Scheme, src/goldfish.hpp and src/goldfish.cpp are the only key source code needed to build the goldfish interpreter binary.

Goldfish Scheme is bundled in Mogan Research (since v1.2.8), just install Mogan Research to install Goldfish Scheme.

Besides the Goldfish Scheme interpreter, a nice structured Goldfish Scheme REPL is availabe in Mogan Research.

The following guide will help you build and install Goldfish step by step.

Here are commandlines to build it on Debian bookworm:

sudo apt install xmake git unzip curl g++
git clone https://gitee.com/LiiiLabs/goldfish.git
# git clone https://github.com/LiiiLabs/goldfish.git
cd goldfish
xmake b goldfish
bin/goldfish --version

You can also install it to /opt:

sudo xmake i -o /opt/goldfish --root
/opt/goldfish/bin/goldfish

For uninstallation, just:

sudo rm -rf /opt/goldfish

This section assumes you have executed xmake b goldfish sucessfully and bin/goldfish is available.

Without any options, it will print the help message:

> bin/goldfish 
Goldfish Scheme 17.10.0 by LiiiLabs
--version       display version
-e              -e '(+ 1 2)'
-l FILE         Load the scheme code on path
FILE            Load the scheme code on path and print the evaluated result

--version will print the Goldfish Scheme version and the underlying S7 Scheme version:

> bin/goldfish --version
Goldfish Scheme 17.10.0 by LiiiLabs
based on S7 Scheme 10.11 (2-July-2024)

-m helps you specify the standard libray mode.

• default: -m default is the equiv of -m liii
• liii: Goldfish Scheme with (liii base) and (liii error)
• sicp: S7 Scheme with (scheme base) and (srfi sicp)
• r7rs: S7 Scheme with (scheme base)
• s7: S7 Scheme without any extra library

-e helps you evaluate the scheme code on the fly:

> bin/goldfish -e "(+ 1 2)"
3
> bin/goldfish -e "(begin (import (srfi srfi-1)) (first (list 1 2 3)))"
1
> bin/goldfish -e "(begin (import (liii sys)) (display (argv)) (newline))" 1 2 3
("bin/goldfish" "-e" "(begin (import (liii sys)) (display (argv)) (newline))" "1" "2" 3)
#\newline

-l helps you load the FILE:

> bin/goldfish -l tests/demo_error.scm 

;car argument, (), is nil but should be a pair
;    (list)
;    tests/demo_error.scm, line 1, position: 10
; (list)

> bin/goldfish -l tests/demo_no_error.scm
> bin/goldfish -l tests/demo_argv.scm 1 2 3
("bin/goldfish" "tests/demo_argv.scm" "1" "2" "3")

If no options provided, it will load the FILE and print the eval result:

> bin/goldfish  tests/demo_no_error.scm 
tests/demo_no_error.scm => 3
> bin/goldfish  tests/demo_error.scm 

;car argument, (), is nil but should be a pair
;    (list)
;    tests/demo_error.scm, line 1, position: 10
; (list)

tests/demo_error.scm => wrong-type-arg
> bin/goldfish tests/demo_argv.scm 1 2 3
("bin/goldfish" "tests/demo_argv.scm" "1" "2" "3")
tests/demo_argv.scm => #\newline

Notice, the FILE and the eval result are separated by =>.

Goldfish Scheme x.y.z means that it is using the tbox x, based on S7 Scheme y, and z is the patch version. To clarify, the second version of Goldfish Scheme is 17.10.1, it means that it is using tbox 1.7.x, based on S7 Scheme 10.x, the patch version is 1.

Goldfish Scheme is implemented to overcome the defects of S7 Scheme:

1. Distribute the ready-to-use Goldfish Scheme interpreter and structured REPL on Linux/macOS/Windows
2. Try to implement the R7RS-small standard
3. Try to provide the useful SRFI in R7RS library format

Goldfish Scheme is licensed under Apache 2.0, some of the code snippets which are derived from the S7 Scheme repo and SRFI have been explicitly claimed in the related source files.

The reader can cite our work with the following BibTeX entry:

@book{goldfish,
    author = {Da Shen and Nian Liu and Yansong Li and Duolei Wang and Leiyu He and Yingyao Zhou and Shuting Zhao and Shen Wei},
    title = {Goldfish Scheme: A Scheme Interpreter with Python-Like Standard Library},
    publisher = {LIII NETWORK},
    year = {2024},
    url = {https://github.com/LiiiLabs/goldfish/releases/download/v17.10.9/Goldfish.pdf}
}