If Scheme is untyped, how can it have numbers and lists?

Posted by Dokkat on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Dokkat
Published on 2014-05-29T20:11:43Z Indexed on 2014/05/29 21:56 UTC
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Scheme is said to be just an extension of the Untyped Lambda Calculus (correct me if I am wrong). If that is the case, how can it have Lists and Numbers? Those, to me, look like 2 base types. So I'd say Racket is actually an extension of the Simply Typed Lambda Calculus. No?

Question:

  • Is Scheme's type system actually based or more similar to Simply Typed or Untyped Lambda Calculus?

  • In what ways does it differ from Untyped and or Simply Typed Lambda Calculus?

(The same question is valid for "untyped" languages such as Python and JavaScript - all of which look like they have base types to me.)

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