I have a small, very adventurous data structures and algorithms class this year with students hungry to try new things. We are using Python as the primary programming language, and Brad Miller and David Ranum's Problem Solving with Data Structures and Algorithms as our primary text, but earlier in the course we learned enough C to implement linked lists and stacks in that language.

We are currently studying the chapter on recursion, and have now agreed to learn enough Lisp to get a feel for the central role recursive algorithms play in problem solving with that language. As the teacher, my task is to locate (and evaluate and test) both the documentation and development tools we will use for this project.

Given the numerous dialects and implementations of Lisp available, there was a lot from which to choose, so I decided to work backwards from the educational resources we would use to learn the language to a dialect and implementation that would support those resources with as little interference as possible. As always, I required that all software be free software, and that the educational resources be either OER or at least available at no financial cost to my students.

After looking at what is available online, I settled on two resources, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and The Little Schemer.

Since these resources use the Scheme dialect of Lisp, my next task was to find a Scheme development environment that would work smoothly with these texts.

$ apt search scheme