Chez Scheme
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 5 scheme implementations by recommenders
Fast optimizing Scheme compiler with small native binaries; critics find its source hard to read and setup rough.
Fast optimizing Scheme compiler with small native binaries; critics find its source hard to read and setup rough.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast optimizing compiler
“remains today one of the most magically optimizing compilers for a dynamic language in existence”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “My 1992 view of the problems of computer programming in 1992” “Yes, Chez Scheme is fast but it took a lot of time (a few years!) to make the compiler translate”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Rhombus version 1.0 is now available” “Chez compiles a project of about 35000 lines (with heavy macro usage) in less than 0.5s on -O2”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “A Friendly Introduction to Racket” - Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The Future of Programming (2013) [video]”
- Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “The Future of Programming (2013) [video]”
- Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “The seven programming ur-languages”
- Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Nanopass Framework: Clean Compiler Creation Language”
- Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Steel Bank Common Lisp”
Small fast-starting native binaries
“The ability to just wrap a C library and statically link everything into a single binary has been really nice too!”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Lisp: Notes on its Past and Future (1980)” “produces native binaries with startup in the microsecond range and around 8 to 13 megs in size”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Clojure in the age of language models” Loved by Scheme enthusiasts
“I love Chez, even if coding in Scheme can feel like rubbing sticks together to start a fire on an island”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “The seven programming ur-languages” “Give me Chez Scheme and the nanopass compiler any day.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Build a Compiler in Five Projects” “Gambit and Chez are amazing achievements.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Jolt: Clojure compiler implemented with Chez Scheme” - Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”
- Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Jolt: Clojure compiler implemented with Chez Scheme”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to read source
“I find Chez's source code very cryptic and hard to read”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Hoot: Scheme on WebAssembly” “Chez improved a bit, at the expensive of readability”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “The seven programming ur-languages” Hard to justify for new projects
“If someone tries to implement a project using Chez Scheme, they better have agreat reason to not use mainstream boring language.”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “My Thoughts on the Bun Rust Rewrite” “they are not languages I would start a project with today”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Writing Lisp Is AI Resistant and I'm Sad” Rough setup, not ready to use
“Unfortunately Windows installation of Jolt and Chez is real pain.”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: I built an app that scours the internet to create a daily news briefing” “Chez Scheme is not "ready to use".”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Chicken Scheme 6.0 Released”
Other scheme implementations people recommend
The four most recommended other scheme implementations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Scheme | 25 | 2 | 93% | 10 | 3 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| GNU Guile | 24 | 20 | 55% | 10 | — | — |
| Chez SchemeThis page | 23 | 5 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| S7 Scheme | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Gambit Scheme | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
28 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Scheme would be a great language for AI to write code with.”
“produces native binaries with startup in the microsecond range and around 8 to 13 megs in size”
“Unfortunately Windows installation of Jolt and Chez is real pain.”
“Chez compiles a project of about 35000 lines (with heavy macro usage) in less than 0.5s on -O2”
“I love Chez Scheme, it was my first Lisp!”
“Chez Scheme is highly underrated!”
“Gambit and Chez are amazing achievements.”
“Nice to see further adoption from Chez Scheme.”
“Chez Scheme is not "ready to use".”
“If someone tries to implement a project using Chez Scheme, they better have agreat reason to not use mainstream boring language.”
“Yes, Chez Scheme is fast but it took a lot of time (a few years!) to make the compiler translate”
“remains today one of the most magically optimizing compilers for a dynamic language in existence”
“It's a bit wild that people use Chez Scheme as a target IR for lack of better options.”
“really fast on-the-fly AOT kinda looks like JIT”
“Chez improved a bit, at the expensive of readability”
“I love Chez, even if coding in Scheme can feel like rubbing sticks together to start a fire on an island”
“it's also quite good for a dynamically-typed JITted language”
“producing code that is pretty darn fast”
“Andy gave a nice talk on the implementation of Chez Scheme, an optimizing compiler”
“they are not languages I would start a project with today”
“use the fastest known scheme, chez”
“all Schemes would look like Chez Scheme or Racket”
“I find Chez's source code very cryptic and hard to read”
“Racket's rehosting atop Chez seems like a good idea”
“Give me Chez Scheme and the nanopass compiler any day.”
“superpowered interpreter-compilers like SBCL and Chez”
“On the Scheme side of things Chez is pretty fast.”
“The ability to just wrap a C library and statically link everything into a single binary has been really nice too!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.