Installing and Configuring MIT Scheme on MS Windows

Unfortunately, MIT Scheme on Windows installer (at least in the versions 7.5.x) is rather stupid. It is not possible to configure the working directories from the installation, and they do not default to the scheme directory, but to C:\. Therefore, if you need to (load "yourfile") and you place "yourfile.scm" in the scheme directory, it won't work. Not to mention placing it in your working directory... With the default settings, you need to place "yourfile.scm" in C:\ !!

To change this directory, you need to manually edit (sorry!) the shortcuts from Start Menu/Programs/MIT Scheme, and to change the Start in field from the link properties, to your working/home directory.

Decent-Looking Fonts

Unfortunately, there is no way to run scheme in a console window, and I personally wonder why, especially because it comes from Unix. It starts in a window, but without using any windowing feature. Besides this, the default font looks quite hideous.
One of the following lines should change the default font to something more decent: 
set MITSCHEME_FONT=Courier New 11 regular
set MITSCHEME_FONT=Courier New 11 bold
set MITSCHEME_FONT=Terminal 11 bold
Either one of the lines above should work. You may want to specify different font sizes (10, 12) if 11 is not good for you.
Remember not to use variable-width fonts.

If you want to change the background/foreground to look white-on-black as in the console window, you can do it with the following commands: 

set MITSCHEME_BACKGROUND=0x000000
set MITSCHEME_FOREGROUND=0xffffff
 

Starting Scheme from the Console

Another problem of the MIT Scheme environment is that it does not provide a direct way of starting with a simple command line. A simple start requires the library path, and this is too onerous to do many times.

Assuming that Scheme is installed in C:\MIT\Scheme\, and assuming that you have the directory C:\MIT\Scheme\bin is in your PATH (set from autoexec.bat), to start it properly from the command prompt, you need to type:
scheme -library C:\MIT\SCHEME\LIB

The sample batch file scheme.bat below should solve this problem. You need to remove C:\MIT\Scheme from the PATH (or not to add it at all), and to put this file instead in a directory :
  
@echo off
set MITSCHEME_FONT=Courier New 11 bold

rem remove the following two lines if you like the default colors
set MITSCHEME_BACKGROUND=0x000000
set MITSCHEME_FOREGROUND=0xffffff

rem replace C:\MIT\Scheme\ with your Scheme installation directory
C:\MIT\Scheme\bin\scheme.exe -library g:\SCHEME\LIB %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

To start the environment, simply type scheme; to start the compiler, type scheme -compiler etc.
Read the documentation for other options.


I hope this helps. Any comments, complains, suggestions are appreciated.
Last updated: 3 June 2001 by Cosmin Truta.