Gambit Scheme
Ranked 5 of 5 scheme implementations by recommenders
Recommended for a fast, optimizing Scheme that compiles to C and standalone binaries and integrates well with C-family code. Caveat: the built-in library is fairly minimal.
Recommended for a fast, optimizing Scheme that compiles to C and standalone binaries and integrates well with C-family code. Caveat: the built-in library is fairly minimal.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
“Perhaps it's a better, optimizing compiler but the built-in library is rather minimalist?”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Chicken Scheme 6.0 Released” “highly performant Scheme implementation”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “A Road to Lisp: Which Lisp” Compiles to C and binaries
“I enjoy working with Gambit, especially since it can compile to C and standalone binaries”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Chicken Scheme 6.0 Released” “can compile to fairly portable C”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Schemy Lisp En DOS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Built-in library is minimal
“Perhaps it's a better, optimizing compiler but the built-in library is rather minimalist?”
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 Scheme | 23 | 5 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| S7 Scheme | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Gambit SchemeThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“can compile to fairly portable C”
“I enjoy working with Gambit, especially since it can compile to C and standalone binaries”
“Perhaps it's a better, optimizing compiler but the built-in library is rather minimalist?”
“highly performant Scheme implementation”
“I really, really, wanted a type system to catch bugs.”
“Gambit, which integrates very well with C, C++, and Objective-C”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.