Are there people using the Scheme programming language out there? [closed]

I have just started to study computer sciences at my university where they teach us programming in Scheme.

Since I have learned C++ for the last 6 years, Scheme appears a little odd to me. My instructors tell me you can write any program you can write in C or Java with it.

Is anybody really using this language?

Solution 1:

Not a lot of people use it that I know, but it is definitely worth a peek (if even just to try programming in another paradigm, so that you learn to think differently). You're lucky to be able to take a class that uses Scheme, as most universities these days now teach Java. Here's a good link if you want to see some lectures from MIT or work on sample problems etc.

MIT Open Courseware - Structure and Interpretation Of Computer Programs

There's an accompanying book available on-line for free as well (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs).

UPDATE:

For those interested in a language that is similar to scheme that makes use of the JVM and can access Java libraries (since lots of universities use Java), check out Clojure. Maybe this will become the new language of choice for computer science introduction (we can all hope!).

Solution 2:

Square USA used it to make the movie Final Fantasy.

Here's a paper they published on it: Gluing Things Together - Scheme in the Real-time CG Content Production.

From that paper:

At SIGGRAPH 2000 and 2001, we, Square USA R&D team showed real-time rendering of scenes from full computer-generated movie ``Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within''.

[...]

We found it tremendous help to have an embedded Scheme interpreter in real-time rendering engine.

Solution 3:

Scheme will make you think differently about programming. Just try be open-minded!