Full name (required): Kevin A. Wortman
Location (optional): Orange, California
Affiliation (optional): California State University, Fullerton
Contact details (optional):
kwortman@x,
kwortman@x
Statement of interest (not required if you registered for the
R6RS ratification or the 2009 Steering Committee election):
I started learning Scheme in 1999. Since then Scheme has been the
programming language I enjoy the most, and is my preferred language
for prototyping and personal utilities.
I have worked as a software developer, and am currently a university
faculty member, but have been unable to make substantial use of Scheme
in those roles. I would like to see Scheme become a more viable
platform for research and large scale software development.
Vote (required): yes
Rationale (optional):
I think the biggest obstacle to wider adoption of Scheme is a shortage
of portable libraries. I expect the R7RS library system would go a
long way toward facilitating the development of portable
libraries. Bytevectors and the (scheme time) library are also welcome
as they substantially widen the scope of what can be implemented
efficiently in portable Scheme.
If I had my druthers the small language would include a minimal
interface to sockets, concurrency, and hierarchical file systems. Then
the scope of functionality implementable in Scheme would include
practically all of the 21st-century software landscape.
But, I do not wish for the perfect to be the enemy of the good, so I
support the incremental improvement R7RS represents.