| 1 | @c -*-texinfo-*- |
| 2 | @c This is part of the GNU Guile Reference Manual. |
| 3 | @c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011 |
| 4 | @c Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| 5 | @c See the file guile.texi for copying conditions. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | @node Preface |
| 8 | @unnumbered Preface |
| 9 | |
| 10 | This manual describes how to use Guile, GNU's Ubiquitous Intelligent |
| 11 | Language for Extensions. It relates particularly to Guile version |
| 12 | @value{VERSION}. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | @menu |
| 15 | * Contributors:: |
| 16 | * Guile License:: |
| 17 | @end menu |
| 18 | |
| 19 | @node Contributors |
| 20 | @unnumberedsec Contributors to this Manual |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Like Guile itself, the Guile reference manual is a living entity, cared |
| 23 | for by many people over a long period of time. As such, it is hard to |
| 24 | identify individuals of whom to say ``yes, this person, she wrote the |
| 25 | manual.'' |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Still, among the many contributions, some caretakers stand out. First |
| 28 | among them is Neil Jerram, who has been working on this document for ten |
| 29 | years now. Neil's attention both to detail and to the big picture have |
| 30 | made a real difference in the understanding of a generation of Guile |
| 31 | hackers. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Next we should note Marius Vollmer's effect on this document. Marius |
| 34 | maintained Guile during a period in which Guile's API was |
| 35 | clarified---put to the fire, so to speak---and he had the good sense to |
| 36 | effect the same change on the manual. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Martin Grabmueller made substantial contributions throughout the manual |
| 39 | in preparation for the Guile 1.6 release, including filling out a lot of |
| 40 | the documentation of Scheme data types, control mechanisms and |
| 41 | procedures. In addition, he wrote the documentation for Guile's SRFI |
| 42 | modules and modules associated with the Guile REPL. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Ludovic Court@`es and Andy Wingo, the Guile maintainers at the time of |
| 45 | this writing (late 2010), have also made their dent in the manual, |
| 46 | writing documentation for new modules and subsystems in Guile 2.0. They |
| 47 | are also responsible for ensuring that the existing text retains its |
| 48 | relevance as Guile evolves. @xref{Reporting Bugs}, for more information |
| 49 | on reporting problems in this manual. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | The content for the first versions of this manual incorporated and was |
| 52 | inspired by documents from Aubrey Jaffer, author of the SCM system on |
| 53 | which Guile was based, and from Tom Lord, Guile's first maintainer. |
| 54 | Although most of this text has been rewritten, all of it was important, |
| 55 | and some of the structure remains. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | The manual for the first versions of Guile were largely written, edited, |
| 58 | and compiled by Mark Galassi and Jim Blandy. In particular, Jim wrote |
| 59 | the original tutorial on Guile's data representation and the C API for |
| 60 | accessing Guile objects. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | Significant portions were also contributed by Thien-Thi Nguyen, Kevin |
| 63 | Ryde, Mikael Djurfeldt, Christian Lynbech, Julian Graham, Gary Houston, |
| 64 | Tim Pierce, and a few dozen more. You, reader, are most welcome to join |
| 65 | their esteemed ranks. Visit Guile's web site at |
| 66 | @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/} to find out how to get |
| 67 | involved. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | |
| 70 | @node Guile License |
| 71 | @unnumberedsec The Guile License |
| 72 | @cindex copying |
| 73 | @cindex GPL |
| 74 | @cindex LGPL |
| 75 | @cindex license |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Guile is Free Software. Guile is copyrighted, not public domain, and |
| 78 | there are restrictions on its distribution or redistribution, but |
| 79 | these restrictions are designed to permit everything a cooperating |
| 80 | person would want to do. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | @itemize @bullet |
| 83 | @item |
| 84 | The Guile library (libguile) and supporting files are published under |
| 85 | the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 or later. |
| 86 | See the files @file{COPYING.LESSER} and @file{COPYING}. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | @item |
| 89 | The Guile readline module is published under the terms of the GNU |
| 90 | General Public License version 3 or later. See the file @file{COPYING}. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | @item |
| 93 | The manual you're now reading is published under the terms of the GNU |
| 94 | Free Documentation License (@pxref{GNU Free Documentation License}). |
| 95 | @end itemize |
| 96 | |
| 97 | C code linking to the Guile library is subject to terms of that |
| 98 | library. Basically such code may be published on any terms, provided |
| 99 | users can re-link against a new or modified version of Guile. |
| 100 | |
| 101 | C code linking to the Guile readline module is subject to the terms of |
| 102 | that module. Basically such code must be published on Free terms. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | Scheme level code written to be run by Guile (but not derived from |
| 105 | Guile itself) is not restricted in any way, and may be published on any |
| 106 | terms. We encourage authors to publish on Free terms. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | You must be aware there is no warranty whatsoever for Guile. This is |
| 109 | described in full in the licenses. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | |
| 112 | @c Local Variables: |
| 113 | @c TeX-master: "guile.texi" |
| 114 | @c End: |