SISC is an R5RS Scheme implementation, which includes a full number tower, hygienic macro

Hygienic macro

Hygienic macros are macros whose expansion is guaranteed not to cause collisions with existing symbol definitions. They are a feature of programming languages such as Scheme and Dylan.-The hygiene problem:...

s, proper tail recursion, and first class

First-class object

In programming language design, a first-class citizen , in the context of a particular programming language, is an entity that can be constructed at run-time, passed as a parameter, returned from a subroutine, or assigned into a variable...

 continuation

Continuation

In computer science and programming, a continuation is an abstract representation of the control state of a computer program. A continuation reifies the program control state, i.e...

s. SISC is short for Second Interpreter of Scheme Code, in reference to its predecessor LISC, the Lightweight Interpreter of Scheme Code.

SISC is free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

, dual-licensed under the Mozilla Public License

Mozilla Public License

The Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...

 and the GNU General Public License, Version 2. It was developed by Scott G. Miller and Matthias Radestock.

Features

SISC depends on Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

' Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

 programming language platform. This runtime environment allows SISC to provide many extensions and libraries such as networking, exception handling

Exception handling

Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions, special conditions that change the normal flow of program execution....

, a module system, and a Java foreign function interface

Foreign function interface

A foreign function interface is a mechanism by which a program written in one programming language can call routines or make use of services written in another. The term comes from the specification for Common Lisp, which explicitly refers to the language features for inter-language calls as...

.

The SISC website claims that it performs faster than any other Scheme interpreter based on the Java Virtual Machine

Java Virtual Machine

A Java virtual machine is a virtual machine capable of executing Java bytecode. It is the code execution component of the Java software platform. Sun Microsystems stated that there are over 4.5 billion JVM-enabled devices.-Overview:...

 (JVM).

Like GNU Guile

GNU Guile

GNU Guile is an interpreter/virtual machine for the Scheme programming language. It was first released in 1993. Guile includes modularized extensions for POSIX system calls, APL array functionality, and others packaged as an object library...

, this Scheme is suitable for embedding into larger programs, where Guile is designed for inclusion in C

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

programs, SISC is designed for the JVM.