Scheme Primitives

Here's a listing of the primitives we've covered in class so far. You should definitely understand how to use all of these correctly for the midterm and the rest of the course.

Defining Functions and Variables

define, lambda, let

(DEFINE <symbol> <value-expression>) the symbol is "bound" to the value of the value-expression.

(LAMBDA (<arg1> <arg2> ... <argn>) <body>) A procedure is created that takes n formal arguments. When the procedure is called, the formal args will be bound to the real args, and will be available for use inside the body code.

(DEFINE (<symbol> <arg1> <arg2> ... <argn>) <body>)
defines a procedure named <symbol>. This is SYNTACTIC SUGAR for:
(DEFINE <symbol> (LAMBDA (<arg1> <arg2> ... <argn>) <body>))
also defines a procedure named <symbol>.
Both of those last two defines have the IDENTICAL MEANING!!!

(LET ( (<symbol-1> <value-1>)
              (<symbol-2> <value-2>)
                                   ...
              (<symbol-n> <value-n>) )
     <body> )
evaluates each expression value-1 through value-n as though it were OUTSIDE the LET, and binds the LOCAL VARIABLES symbol-1 through symbol-n to the corresponding results. These local variables can then be used inside the BODY. LET is SYNTACTIC SUGAR for a particular way of using LAMBDA (see your notes and the book).

Both DEFINE and LAMBDA (and LET, which is really a LAMBDA) are SPECIAL FORMS. They do not obey the Scheme Rules of Evaluation.

Control Special Forms

(COND   (<predicate1> <clause1a> <clause1b>...<clause1m>)
                (<predicate2> <clasue2> <clause2b> ... <clause2m>)
                              ...
                (<predicate-n> <clasue-n-a> <clause-n-b> ... <clause-n-m)
                (else <else-clause-a> <else-clause-b> ... <else-clause-m) )
Test each predicate in order. If a predicate is true, then evaluate the corresponding clauses, and that's all for the COND. If no predicate is true, then evaluate the else-clauses. If you don't have an "else", and none of the predicates are true, then an error is signaled.

Logical Predicates

anything

(AND <e1> <e2> ... <en>) is a SPECIAL FORM. AND evaluates each arg, one at a time, left to right. If all the arguments evaluate to TRUE, then AND returns TRUE. If any argument evaluates to FALSE, then AND stops evaluating args and immediately returns FALSE.

(OR <e1> <e2> ... <en>) is also a SPECIAL FORM. It works just like AND, except that OR returns TRUE immediately if any argument evaluates to TRUE, and returns FALSE only if it evaluates all of the arguments and they all return FALSE.

(NOT <e1>) returns true if e1 evaluates to false, and false if e1 evaluates to true.

Operations on NUMBERS

Predicates

even?

odd?

Operations: + , - , * , / , quotient , remainder , abs , sin , cos , log , etc.
The arguments to these operations should be numbers. The results are also numbers. Some operators, like + and *, take any number of arguments. Some, like abs or sin, are unary. The "-" operator can be both n-ary (as repeated subtraction) and unary (negation of a number).

Operations on SYMBOLS

Predicates

eq?

symbol?

Operations: '<expression> , which is Syntactic Sugar for (QUOTE <expression>). QUOTE is a SPECIAL FORM that stops the Scheme Rule of Evaluation. Instead of evaluating the quoted expression, Scheme will

Operations on LISTS (ordered sets of elements)

Predicates:

pair?

null?

(equal? x y) returns #t if x and y are symbols that are eq?, numbers that are =, or lists who's cars are equal? and whose cdrs are equal?.

Operations:

LIST

list

CONS

cons

(list 'a 'b 'c) is the same as (cons 'a (cons 'b (cons 'c '())))

APPEND

append

CAR

(CDR <list>) returns the list of everything except the first element.

Syntactic Sugar: (car (cdr x)) = (cadr x), (cdr (car (cdr x)))= (cdadr x), etc.

car

cdr

cadr

caar

car

cdr

SEQUENCE OPERATIONS

MAP

(FILTER <predicate> <list>)
Calls the predicate <predicate> on each element of the list <list>, and returns a new list of ONLY the elements when the predicate returned TRUE!
For example, (filter odd? '(1 2 3 4 5 6)) ==> (1 3 5)

(ACCUMULATE <op> <init> <list>)
Takes a list and "reduces" it by repeatedly applying <op> to the next element of the list, and the result of accumulating the rest of the list. When the list is empty, accumulate returns <init>. Examples:

PROCEDURES WITH SIDE EFFECTS

(display "String to print")
(display <symbol>)
Writes a string or the value of a symbol to the screen.

(newline)
Outputs a new line on the screen.