Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!viewlog.viewlogic.com!josh
From: josh@viewlogic.com (Josh Marantz)
Subject: Re: Scheme at work ? 
Message-ID: <CwunHI.4AK@viewlogic.com>
Sender: news@viewlogic.com
Nntp-Posting-Host: concept
Organization: Viewlogic Systems, Inc.
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 17:05:39 GMT
Lines: 50


> I'm just wondering how many folks out there are using Scheme for non-
> academic work?  Just asking the question from a pratical point of
> view.  Cause apart from AutoCad's dialect of Lisp, there don't seem to
> be much commercial usage of functional style languages.  I recently
> saw 2 companies from downunder release shareware Windows Lisp/Scheme
> dialects. And I thought to myself... hmm PC's are getting more
> powerful, prices are dropping (Petiums rumured to go down 50% n ext
> Jan) ....

Every once in a while, someone asks this question...perhaps it's a FAQ?

Viewlogic has been selling its Electronic Design Automation framework
with a Scheme-based extension language, called Viewscript, since 1992.
Viewscript has been gaining in popularity with our users, and
particularly with our field applications group (people that go into
customer sites and customize/extend the system for their unique
needs).

This system is sold under MS Windows and NT, as well as many Unix
platforms.

The syntax of Viewscript is based on C.  The combination seems to have
worked well for us.  There was some heated discussion about this on
this newsgroup a while back, but I'm pretty happy with the way things
have gone.  In our next release, straight Scheme syntax will also be
supported, but this doesn't seem to be a big factor with most people.
There's actually a certain amount of value added in the C syntax, such
as exception handling, operator overloading, packages, structure
syntax, and iteration constructs.

Much of the spirit of Viewscript's role in our system is echoed in
TCL/TK, except that:

        1.      Viewscript is real Scheme underneath, and so suffers from
                of RMS's complaints.  On the other hand, TCL/TK is much
                "lighter".
        2.      TCL/TK is public domain, and comes from a well-known
                institution, and so it has become quite popular.

There are many other lisp-based extension languages in commercial
software systems.  Some that come to mind are: Cakewalk music
sequencing, Interleaf publishing, and Cadence (another EDA company).
I don't think any of these are based on Scheme, however.
-- 
Joshua Marantz              If I only could deceive you, forgetting the game
Viewlogic Systems,    Every time I try to leave you, you laugh just the same
josh@viewlogic.com                     'Cause my wheels never touch the road
                                              And the jumble of lies we told
                                Just returns to my back to weigh me down...
