All of the work in SICP is done in in mit-scheme. The following instructions will help you set up an environment to follow along with the coding examples and exercises. If you have or need instructions on how to get set up on an environment not listed below, feel free to let us know or send us a pull request.
I recommend using the latest and greatest version of emacs, which can be had from Damien Cassou's PPA. To install, just add the ppa, update, and install:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cassou/emacs
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install emacs24 emacs24-el emacs24-common-non-dfsg
If you are on a 32-bit system, all you need to do is install the mit-scheme package from the ubuntu repository:
sudo apt-get install mit-scheme
If you are on a 64-bit system, you'll need to find a 64-bit package. Lucky for us, the folks at the University of Minnesota have one available we can use:
sudo apt-get install xutils-dev libx11-dev libncurses5-dev
sudo wget http://www-users.cselabs.umn.edu/classes/Fall-2010/csci1901/mit-scheme-x64_9.0.1-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i mit-scheme-x64_9.0.1-1_amd64.deb
The 64-bit package installs mit scheme as mit-scheme-x86-64, so to launch it using the more familiar mit-scheme and scheme commands, we'll symlink it:
sudo ln -s -T /usr/local/bin/mit-scheme-x86-64 /usr/local/bin/mit-scheme
sudo ln -s -T /usr/local/bin/mit-scheme-x86-64 /usr/local/bin/scheme
Once installed, you can start an interactive scheme session in emacs by running M-x run-scheme.
I use Homebrew for my emacs install since most of the other ones for Mac OS X have annoyed me in one way or another so here's how I set that up.
Install Homebrew
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
brew install automake
Install emacs
brew install emacs --HEAD --use-git-head --cocoa --srgb
Then get the mac to recognize your installation
ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/Emacs.app /Applications
Tell Launchbar to find it in /usr/local/Cellar
Then fix the path adding this to .bash_profile:
alias emacs=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/bin/emacs
alias emacsclient=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/bin/emacsclient
export EDITOR=emacs
export EMACS=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/bin/emacs
Then source .bash_profile
Install a symlink to the binary
sudo ln -s /Applications/MIT\:GNU\ Scheme.app/Contents/Resources/mit-scheme /usr/local/bin/scheme
Add the following to your .emacs (N.B. the backslash escaping)
(setenv "MITSCHEME_LIBRARY_PATH" "/Applications/MIT\\:GNU\\ Scheme.app/Contents/Resources")
Add the following to your .bash_profile
export MITSCHEME_LIBRARY_PATH="/Applications/MIT\:GNU\ Scheme.app/Contents/Resources"
source .bash_profile
To run scheme in emacs do M-x run-scheme You need to make sure your emacs knows to use /usr/local/bin for a path and has setup the MITSCHEME_LIBRARY_PATH you should see something like this:
MIT/GNU Scheme running under MacOSX
Type `^C' (control-C) followed by `H' to obtain information about interrupts.
Copyright (C) 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not
even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Image saved on Tuesday November 8, 2011 at 10:45:46 PM
Release 9.1.1 || Microcode 15.3 || Runtime 15.7 || SF 4.41 || LIAR/x86-64 4.118
Edwin 3.116
1 ]=>
To run it from the command line and enter the REPL just run scheme again assuming your bash knows to use /usr/local/bin as part of it's path. ^D to exit the REPL. You should see the same thing as above but not in an emacs buffer.