Scheme tutorial

This tutorial covers the basics of the Scheme programming language, which is a prerequisite for writing Scheme extensions to LilyPond.

This material originates in a presentation delivered at a virtual conference of French-speaking LilyPond users in 2021.

I would like to thank Urs Liska for his own (unfinished) book on Scheme and LilyPond, which helped me learn Scheme myself, and inspired some parts of this tutorial.

• Getting started
  • Meeting the Scheme sandbox
  • Inserting Scheme code in a LilyPond file
  • Comments
  • Literals
  • Defining variables
• Expressions
  • First operations
  • Nesting expressions
  • Formatting code
  • Sequences of expressions
• Functions
• Messages
• Conditions
  • if syntax
  • cond syntax
  • Frequently used tests
  • Combining tests
  • One-armed if
  • On universal truth
• Local variables
  • let syntax
  • Parenthesizing a let expression
  • Simplifying code with let*
• Lists and anonymous functions
  • Constructing lists
  • Basic operations
  • Traversing a list
  • Filtering lists
  • Using anonymous functions
• Quoting and symbols
  • Understanding quoting
  • Quasiquoting
  • Identity of symbols
  • Identity and immutability of literal data
• Pairs and alists
  • A word on pairs
  • Alists
    • Retrieving a value
    • Modifying values
• Recursion
  • How recursion works
  • More on lists
  • Tail recursion
  • Named let syntax
• Typing
  • Dynamic typing
  • Basic type predicates
  • Derived and custom type predicates
• Appendix: Other Scheme resources