Несколько вопросов здесь относительноletcc это используется в Закаленном Schemer.

(define (intersect-all sets)
  (letcc hop
    (letrec
      ((A (lambda (sets)
            (cond
              ((null? (car sets)) (hop '())
              ((null? (cdr sets)) (car sets))
              (else
                (intersect (car sets)
                           (A (cdr sets)))))))
       ; definition of intersect removed for brevity
      (cond
        ((null? sets) '())
        (else (A sets))))))

I think I understand what letcc achieves, and that is basically something like catch and throw in ruby (and seemingly CL), which basically means a whole block of code can be cut short by calling whatever the named letcc is. This feels like the least "functional" thing I've come across in this short series of books and it makes me feel a bit hesitant to use it, as I want to learn a good functional style. Am I just misunderstanding letcc, or is it not really a functional programming concept and only exists to improve performance? The whole idea that I can be in the middle of some routine and then suddenly get to another point in the code feels a bit wrong... like abusing try/catch in Java for program flow.

letcc doesn't seem to exist in the version of guile (1.8.7) I have installed in OS X. Is there another name for it that I should be looking for in guile?

If I'm misunderstanding letcc by comparing it with try/catch in Java, or catch/throw in ruby (which is not exception handling, just to be clear, for the non-rubyists), how exactly does it work, at the functional level? Can it be expressed in a longer, more complex way, that convinces me it is functional after all?