chicken ☆

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Description:
Compiler for the Scheme programming language

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 5.4.0@0 | Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025

Links: Homepage | @chickenscheme | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: scheme compiler functional-programming lisp programming-languages c-ffi

Install: brew install chicken

About:
CHICKEN is a feature-rich Scheme compiler that translates Scheme code into highly portable C code, which is then compiled to native machine code. It provides excellent performance through its sophisticated native code generation while maintaining full compatibility with the R5RS and R7RS Scheme standards. The tool includes a powerful module system, extensive libraries, and seamless C interoperability for building robust applications.

Key Features:

Native code compilation via C for high performance
Full R5RS and R7RS Scheme standard compliance
Rich module system with package management
Seamless C foreign function interface (FFI)
Extensive collection of community libraries

Use Cases:

Developing high-performance applications with Scheme
Creating embedded scripting engines for C/C++ applications
Building cross-platform command-line tools and utilities
Learning and teaching functional programming concepts

Alternatives:

Guile – GNU's official extension language, more focused on embedding
Racket – Larger ecosystem with IDE, more batteries-included approach
Chicken 4 – Legacy version, version 5 offers better performance and cleanup

License: BSD-3-Clause

Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, arm64_monterey, sonoma, ventura, monterey, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 12, 2025 8:16pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	81673db5