@nprofile1q... @nprofile1q... in my view, the main problems with Kawa are that:
- there are some bugs in the compiler
- the compiler is written in the 90's Java style, very stateful and it's not always easy to figure out what's going on
- the author of Kawa doesn't seem to have energy/passion/capability to maintain it anymore
- there is no vibrant community around Kawa, and there seems to be no commercial incentives either (like the ones Cognitect had)

That being said, I think it is an amazing piece of work - including both the engineering effort and the tasteful extensions to the Scheme language