Abstract
A simple set of extensions to theSCHEME language removes the need for a distinguished top level interaction environment by providing first-class environments. These extensions also provide a powerful mechanism for code packaging and may be used to implement simple object-oriented systems. In addition, a mechanism is presented that implements compiled references to free variables as efficiently as in languages likeC, provided the code does not directly manipulate first-class environments. The mechanism requires a simple static analysis performed by the compiler and meshes with a slower mechanism used by both interpreted code and compiled code that manipulates first-class environments.
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Author's new affiliation is Digital Equipment Corporation, Cambridge Research Facility
The authors want to express their gratitude to Christopher Hanson of the MIT Scheme Team for his help with an early version of this paper and his invaluable comments on several subsequent drafts. Prof. Harold Abelson of MIT provided encouragement and also contributed a number of helpful comments.
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Miller, J.S., Rozas, G.J. Free variables and first-class environments. Lisp and Symbolic Computation 4, 107–141 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01813016
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01813016