Thursday, September 28, Volen 101, 2:10-3:10 pm. (Refreshments at 2:00pm)
SILK (Scheme in about 50 K) is a compact Scheme implemented in Java. It is currently in its fourth implementation. The first version implemented a nearly R4RS Scheme in Java, but its access to Java was awkward. The current version has altered SILK's syntax and semantics slightly to better integrate with Java. This has simplified its implementation, and made SILK an effective Java scripting language, while preserving its Scheme flavor. SILK applications, applets and servlets are surprisingly compact because they take advantage of Scheme's expressiveness. Because SILK is interactive and has reflective access to Java, it provides a view into a Java application that few Java programmers have seen. SILK is currently being used to teach web programming (applets and servlets) to mostly non-science majors. SILK is an Open Source project at http://silk.sourceforge.net