Kawa, the Java-based Scheme system

Node:Application compilation, Next:Applet compilation, Previous:Files compilation, Up:Compiling

### Compiling Scheme to a standalone application

A Java application is a Java class with a special method (whose name is `main`). The application can be invoked directly by naming it in the Java command. If you want to generate an application from a Scheme program, create a Scheme source file with the definitions you need, plus the top-level actions that you want the application to execute. You can compile in the regular way decribed in the previous section, but add the `--main` option. For example, assuming your Scheme file is `MyProgram.scm`:

         kawa --main -C MyProgram.scm

This will create a `MyProgram.class` which you can either `load` (as decribed in the previous section), or invoke as an application:

         java MyProgram [args]

Your Scheme program can access the command-line arguments args by using the global variable `command-line-arguments`.