Install Guile

Installation

On GNU/Linux

Installing Guile is easy as pie via a package manager.

Using Guix (recommended)

$ guix install guile

Using apt (on Debian and derivatives)

# apt install guile-3.0

Using Yum (on RedHat and derivatives)

# yum install guile

Using Pacman (on ArchLinux and derivatives)

# pacman -S guile

On MacOS

A procedure for MacOS is available here.

On Windows

You can install an Ubuntu system (from the store), then use the apt instructions to get Guile and start hacking !

Configuration

Guile comes with a tool commonly called a REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop), a kind of super interpreter. But without configuration, it remains very rudimentary and is not very practical.

Nothing very complicated but you have to activate two modules (one of which you have to install manually).

$ guix package -i guile-colorized

If you don't use Guix, you can find the installation instructions for this module here.

Then, you can configure your interpreter by modifying the ~/.guile file (create it if it doesn't exist) and put the following lines into it:

(use-modules (ice-9 readline)
             (ice-9 colorized))

(activate-readline)
(activate-colorized)

With this your REPL is now more colorful, has a history of past evaluations in which you can navigate and a visual aid for closing a brackets.