diff --git a/README b/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b3d817 --- /dev/null +++ b/README @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +Ikarus Scheme is an implementation of the Scheme programming +language. The preliminary release of Ikarus implements the majority +of the features found in the current standard, the Revised 6 report +on the algorithmic language Scheme including full R6RS library and +script syntax, syntax-case, unicode strings, bytevectors, +user-defined record types, exception handling, conditions, and +enumerations. Subsequent releases will proceed towards brining +Ikarus to full R6RS conformance. + +The main purpose behind releasing Ikarus early is to give Scheme +programmers the opportunity to experiment with the various new +features that were newly introduced in R6RS. The most important of +such features is the ability to structure large programs into +libraries; where each library extends the language through +procedural and syntactic abstractions. Many useful libraries can be +written using the currently supported set of R6RS features including +text processing tools, symbolic logic systems, interpreters and +compilers, and many mathematical and scientific packages. It is my +hope that this release will encourage the Scheme community to write +and to share their most useful R6RS libraries.