Reflecting Java into Scheme

We describe our experience with SILK, a Scheme dialect written in Java. SILK grazes symbiotically on Java’s reflective layer, enriching itself with Java’s classes and their behavior. This is done with three procedures. (constructor) and (method)provide access to a specific Java constructor or method respectively. (import) allows the entire behavior of a class to be imported easily. (import) converts Java methods into generic functions that take methods written in Java or Scheme. In return, SILK provides Java applications with an interactive development and debugging environment that can be used to develop graphical applications from the convenience of your web browser. Also, because SILK has introspective access into Java, it can also be used for compile time metaobject scripting. For example, it can generate a new class using an old one as a template.