| 1 | Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. |
| 2 | Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| 3 | See the end for copying conditions. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | \f |
| 8 | (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest |
| 9 | prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.) |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Changes in 1.9.8 (since the 1.9.7 prerelease): |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | |
| 18 | \f |
| 19 | Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series): |
| 20 | |
| 21 | * New modules (see the manual for details) |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support |
| 24 | ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support |
| 25 | ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API |
| 26 | ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API |
| 27 | ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented) |
| 28 | |
| 29 | ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo |
| 32 | toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See |
| 33 | "Standard Library" in the manual for more details. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 36 | |
| 37 | ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around |
| 40 | 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set |
| 45 | its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000 |
| 46 | words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH, |
| 49 | GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH |
| 50 | |
| 51 | GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is |
| 52 | for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled |
| 53 | files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like |
| 54 | GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation |
| 57 | |
| 58 | Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While |
| 59 | it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been |
| 60 | documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes' |
| 63 | |
| 64 | The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'), |
| 65 | `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as |
| 66 | parenthesis. This option is on by default. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader |
| 69 | will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL |
| 72 | |
| 73 | The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically |
| 74 | profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most |
| 75 | time. See `,help profile' for more information. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur |
| 78 | during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | ** New debugger |
| 81 | |
| 82 | By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user |
| 83 | code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a |
| 84 | backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full |
| 85 | documentation is available from within the debugger. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble' |
| 88 | |
| 89 | Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more |
| 90 | information. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH |
| 93 | |
| 94 | Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run |
| 95 | `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to |
| 96 | include `/path/to/lib'. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the |
| 101 | mouse. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths |
| 104 | |
| 105 | When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's |
| 106 | version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This |
| 107 | allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has |
| 108 | installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half, |
| 109 | in the common case. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | |
| 112 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 113 | |
| 114 | ** New implementation of `primitive-eval' |
| 115 | |
| 116 | Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is |
| 117 | still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the |
| 118 | compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to |
| 119 | primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code. |
| 120 | |
| 121 | This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled, |
| 122 | to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics, |
| 123 | providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled |
| 124 | code, and simplifying debugging. |
| 125 | |
| 126 | As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal |
| 127 | representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile |
| 130 | takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging |
| 131 | information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve |
| 132 | both of these situations. |
| 133 | |
| 134 | There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all |
| 135 | public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If |
| 136 | we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please |
| 137 | contact bug-guile@gnu.org. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | ** Procedure removed: `the-environment' |
| 140 | |
| 141 | This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does |
| 142 | not apply to the compiler. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | ** No more `local-eval' |
| 145 | |
| 146 | `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the |
| 147 | lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical |
| 148 | environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler, |
| 149 | and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the |
| 150 | function. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your |
| 153 | own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's |
| 154 | anyway. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled |
| 157 | automatically. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is |
| 160 | not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting |
| 161 | .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go |
| 164 | modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after |
| 165 | installation, care should be taken to preserve their original |
| 166 | timestamps. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache |
| 169 | directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory |
| 170 | will be created if needed. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment |
| 173 | variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will |
| 176 | sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted, |
| 179 | not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say |
| 180 | something here about module-transformer called for compile. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile |
| 185 | its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is |
| 186 | not found. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does |
| 189 | not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the |
| 190 | autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile. |
| 191 | |
| 192 | Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l |
| 193 | command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown |
| 194 | the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled. |
| 195 | |
| 196 | ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit' |
| 197 | |
| 198 | Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change |
| 199 | in the next prerelease. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid' |
| 202 | |
| 203 | Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call. |
| 204 | |
| 205 | ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals' |
| 206 | |
| 207 | ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled |
| 208 | procedures |
| 209 | |
| 210 | This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!', |
| 213 | `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!' |
| 214 | `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments', |
| 215 | |
| 216 | The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to |
| 217 | the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for |
| 218 | example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those |
| 219 | procedures' docstrings for more information. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take, |
| 222 | combining arity and formals. For example: |
| 223 | |
| 224 | (procedure-arguments resolve-interface) |
| 225 | => ((required . (name)) (rest . args)) |
| 226 | |
| 227 | Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from |
| 228 | `(ice-9 session). |
| 229 | |
| 230 | ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax' |
| 231 | |
| 232 | These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are |
| 233 | no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you |
| 234 | probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will |
| 235 | probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway). |
| 236 | |
| 237 | ** New language: ECMAScript |
| 238 | |
| 239 | Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported, |
| 240 | ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard, |
| 241 | but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet |
| 242 | documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested. |
| 243 | |
| 244 | ** New language: Brainfuck |
| 245 | |
| 246 | Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's |
| 247 | brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other |
| 248 | languages. See the manual for details, or |
| 249 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the |
| 250 | Brainfuck language itself. |
| 251 | |
| 252 | ** New language: Elisp |
| 253 | |
| 254 | Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can |
| 255 | now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel |
| 256 | Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | ** Defmacros may now have docstrings. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from |
| 261 | `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you |
| 262 | have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros. |
| 263 | Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures. |
| 264 | |
| 265 | ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special |
| 266 | forms. |
| 267 | |
| 268 | ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules. |
| 269 | |
| 270 | Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was |
| 271 | defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code |
| 272 | like this works now: |
| 273 | |
| 274 | (define-module (foo) #:export (bar)) |
| 275 | (define (helper x) ...) |
| 276 | (define-syntax bar |
| 277 | (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x)))) |
| 278 | |
| 279 | (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo)) |
| 280 | (bar qux) |
| 281 | |
| 282 | It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well. |
| 283 | Thankfully, this has been fixed. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form |
| 286 | |
| 287 | Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by |
| 288 | version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information |
| 289 | about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in |
| 290 | the manual for more information. |
| 291 | |
| 292 | ** Support for renaming bindings on module export |
| 293 | |
| 294 | Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to |
| 295 | export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding |
| 296 | should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual |
| 297 | for more information. |
| 298 | |
| 299 | ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'. |
| 300 | |
| 301 | The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still |
| 302 | missing documentation, however. |
| 303 | |
| 304 | ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression |
| 305 | contexts. |
| 306 | |
| 307 | Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following |
| 308 | expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS: |
| 309 | |
| 310 | (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz)) |
| 311 | |
| 312 | In this specific case, it would be better to do: |
| 313 | |
| 314 | (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz)) |
| 315 | |
| 316 | It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g. |
| 317 | `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate |
| 318 | feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the |
| 319 | default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0 |
| 320 | in response to user feedback. |
| 321 | |
| 322 | ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of |
| 325 | supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For |
| 326 | example: |
| 327 | |
| 328 | (define (helper x) ...) |
| 329 | (define-macro (foo bar) |
| 330 | `(,helper ,bar)) |
| 331 | |
| 332 | Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of |
| 333 | this code would be: |
| 334 | |
| 335 | (define (helper x) ...) |
| 336 | (define-macro (foo bar) |
| 337 | `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar)) |
| 338 | |
| 339 | Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead: |
| 340 | |
| 341 | (define-syntax foo |
| 342 | (syntax-rules () |
| 343 | ((_ bar) (helper bar)))) |
| 344 | |
| 345 | ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions. |
| 346 | |
| 347 | The following Scheme is not strictly legal: |
| 348 | |
| 349 | (define (foo) |
| 350 | "bar" |
| 351 | (define (baz) ...) |
| 352 | (baz)) |
| 353 | |
| 354 | However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the |
| 355 | docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition |
| 356 | context. |
| 357 | |
| 358 | ** Macros need to be defined before their first use. |
| 359 | |
| 360 | It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work: |
| 361 | |
| 362 | (define (foo x) |
| 363 | (ref x)) |
| 364 | (define-macro (ref x) x) |
| 365 | (foo 1) => 1 |
| 366 | |
| 367 | But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel |
| 368 | `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define |
| 369 | macros before code that uses them. |
| 370 | |
| 371 | ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at |
| 372 | expand-time. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | For example, this code will work at the REPL: |
| 375 | |
| 376 | (define (double-helper x) (* x x)) |
| 377 | (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x)) |
| 378 | (double-literal 2) => 4 |
| 379 | |
| 380 | But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of |
| 381 | `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap |
| 382 | the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when': |
| 383 | |
| 384 | (eval-when (load compile eval) |
| 385 | (define (double-helper x) (* x x))) |
| 386 | (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x)) |
| 387 | (double-literal 2) => 4 |
| 388 | |
| 389 | See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more |
| 390 | information. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer |
| 393 | |
| 394 | Need to document this one some more. |
| 395 | |
| 396 | ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1' |
| 397 | |
| 398 | `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to |
| 399 | implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove |
| 400 | that it is possible. |
| 401 | |
| 402 | ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@ |
| 403 | |
| 404 | These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax', |
| 405 | `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information. |
| 406 | These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'. |
| 407 | |
| 408 | ** Incompatible change to #' |
| 409 | |
| 410 | Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the |
| 411 | subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone |
| 412 | actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the |
| 413 | `read-hash-extend' mechanism. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #; |
| 416 | |
| 417 | #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more |
| 418 | information. |
| 419 | |
| 420 | ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer |
| 421 | works (with compiled procedures) |
| 422 | |
| 423 | It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select |
| 424 | calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure |
| 425 | already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug |
| 426 | information from the original procedure was kept on the stack. |
| 427 | |
| 428 | Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from |
| 429 | the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the |
| 430 | stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure |
| 431 | that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific |
| 432 | number of stack frames. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are |
| 435 | active in the current continuation |
| 436 | |
| 437 | Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be |
| 438 | different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic |
| 439 | differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any |
| 440 | deficiencies with Guile's backtraces. |
| 441 | |
| 442 | ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information |
| 443 | through to the expanded code |
| 444 | |
| 445 | This should result in better backtraces. |
| 446 | |
| 447 | ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed. |
| 448 | |
| 449 | Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to |
| 450 | |
| 451 | (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b)))) |
| 452 | |
| 453 | Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by |
| 454 | default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported |
| 455 | again by default. |
| 456 | |
| 457 | ** New procedure, `define!' |
| 458 | |
| 459 | `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value, |
| 460 | and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to |
| 461 | programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly |
| 462 | less verbose than `module-define!'. |
| 463 | |
| 464 | ** All modules have names now |
| 465 | |
| 466 | Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now, |
| 467 | because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was |
| 468 | created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a |
| 469 | fresh name will be lazily generated for it. |
| 470 | |
| 471 | ** Many syntax errors have different texts now |
| 472 | |
| 473 | Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments |
| 474 | are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to |
| 475 | using standard SRFI-35 conditions. |
| 476 | |
| 477 | ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the |
| 478 | values to the expected number |
| 479 | |
| 480 | For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form, |
| 481 | `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as |
| 482 | being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply. |
| 483 | |
| 484 | The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack, |
| 485 | not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values |
| 486 | anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses |
| 487 | to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead. |
| 488 | |
| 489 | The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more |
| 490 | intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time. |
| 491 | This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS. |
| 492 | |
| 493 | ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound |
| 494 | objects |
| 495 | |
| 496 | This change may manifest itself in the following situation: |
| 497 | |
| 498 | (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val) |
| 499 | |
| 500 | In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values |
| 501 | are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values |
| 502 | are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In |
| 503 | the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while |
| 504 | the interpreter would proceed. |
| 505 | |
| 506 | Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's |
| 507 | behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially |
| 508 | multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value |
| 509 | continuation, using `call-with-values'. |
| 510 | |
| 511 | ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case. |
| 512 | |
| 513 | The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has |
| 514 | been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table', |
| 515 | `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and |
| 516 | `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If |
| 517 | any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage |
| 518 | you to contact the Guile developers. |
| 519 | |
| 520 | ** psyntax is now the default expander |
| 521 | |
| 522 | Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro |
| 523 | expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or |
| 524 | interpretation. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins. |
| 527 | In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the |
| 528 | code in question was memoized. |
| 529 | |
| 530 | As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound |
| 531 | identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the |
| 532 | compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g., |
| 533 | `x432' instead of `x'. |
| 534 | |
| 535 | Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had |
| 536 | modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10 |
| 537 | years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed |
| 538 | in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org. |
| 539 | |
| 540 | ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default. |
| 541 | |
| 542 | There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module |
| 543 | (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via |
| 544 | `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module |
| 545 | transformer. |
| 546 | |
| 547 | Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default |
| 548 | environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax', |
| 549 | `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries', |
| 550 | `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation. |
| 551 | |
| 552 | ** Tail patterns in syntax-case |
| 553 | |
| 554 | Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable |
| 555 | syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns |
| 556 | are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case |
| 557 | match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example: |
| 558 | |
| 559 | (define-syntax case |
| 560 | (syntax-rules (else) |
| 561 | ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...)) |
| 562 | [...]))) |
| 563 | |
| 564 | Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a |
| 565 | tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the |
| 566 | patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code. |
| 567 | |
| 568 | ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced |
| 569 | by nonhygienic macros. |
| 570 | |
| 571 | If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be |
| 572 | referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works: |
| 573 | |
| 574 | (let () |
| 575 | (define-macro (bind-x val body) |
| 576 | `(let ((x ,val)) ,body)) |
| 577 | (define-macro (ref x) |
| 578 | x) |
| 579 | (bind-x 10 (ref x))) |
| 580 | |
| 581 | But this does not: |
| 582 | |
| 583 | (let () |
| 584 | (define-syntax bind-x |
| 585 | (syntax-rules () |
| 586 | ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body)))) |
| 587 | (define-macro (ref x) |
| 588 | x) |
| 589 | (bind-x 10 (ref x))) |
| 590 | |
| 591 | It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However, |
| 592 | as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to |
| 593 | run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port |
| 594 | its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know |
| 595 | about. |
| 596 | |
| 597 | ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values. |
| 598 | |
| 599 | In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now, |
| 600 | expanding this form raises a syntax error. |
| 601 | |
| 602 | Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be |
| 603 | /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module) |
| 604 | 'if)'. |
| 605 | |
| 606 | This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome |
| 607 | to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no |
| 608 | subscription required). |
| 609 | |
| 610 | ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment. |
| 611 | |
| 612 | The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the |
| 613 | `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish |
| 614 | to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier. |
| 615 | |
| 616 | ** Compiled procedures may now have more than one arity. |
| 617 | |
| 618 | This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The |
| 619 | arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the |
| 620 | `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional |
| 621 | Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual. |
| 622 | |
| 623 | ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment |
| 624 | |
| 625 | As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for |
| 626 | compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope). |
| 627 | Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations, |
| 628 | without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast. |
| 629 | |
| 630 | ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support |
| 631 | |
| 632 | `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that |
| 633 | will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the |
| 634 | output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for |
| 635 | more details. |
| 636 | |
| 637 | There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated |
| 638 | print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format' |
| 639 | documentation for more details. |
| 640 | |
| 641 | ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors |
| 642 | |
| 643 | Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you |
| 644 | have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere, |
| 645 | or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere |
| 646 | else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4 |
| 647 | APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are |
| 648 | addressed by element and not by byte. |
| 649 | |
| 650 | So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on |
| 651 | numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native |
| 652 | endianness, as one would expect. |
| 653 | |
| 654 | Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile |
| 655 | also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they |
| 656 | were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with |
| 657 | u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the |
| 658 | same to Guile. |
| 659 | |
| 660 | In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from |
| 661 | input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors. |
| 662 | |
| 663 | Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now |
| 664 | inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access. |
| 665 | |
| 666 | See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information. |
| 667 | |
| 668 | ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' |
| 669 | |
| 670 | Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that |
| 671 | are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the |
| 672 | `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'. |
| 673 | |
| 674 | Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should |
| 675 | import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well. |
| 676 | |
| 677 | See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information. |
| 678 | |
| 679 | ** New syntax: include-from-path. |
| 680 | |
| 681 | `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in |
| 682 | the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file. |
| 683 | |
| 684 | ** New syntax: quasisyntax. |
| 685 | |
| 686 | `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS |
| 687 | documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the |
| 688 | implementation. |
| 689 | |
| 690 | ** Unicode characters |
| 691 | |
| 692 | Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or |
| 693 | created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will |
| 694 | probably be introduced at some point. |
| 695 | |
| 696 | ** Unicode strings |
| 697 | |
| 698 | Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1' |
| 699 | encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per |
| 700 | character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed. |
| 701 | |
| 702 | Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the |
| 703 | hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit, |
| 704 | or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native |
| 705 | encoding of the port on which the string is read. |
| 706 | |
| 707 | ** Unicode symbols |
| 708 | |
| 709 | One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier. |
| 710 | |
| 711 | ** Support for non-ASCII source code files |
| 712 | |
| 713 | The default reader now handles source code files for some of the |
| 714 | non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file |
| 715 | should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also, |
| 716 | there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding |
| 717 | declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding |
| 718 | of Source Files". |
| 719 | |
| 720 | The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source |
| 721 | code. This use is now discouraged. |
| 722 | |
| 723 | ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports |
| 724 | |
| 725 | Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write |
| 726 | operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also |
| 727 | have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion |
| 728 | failures. |
| 729 | |
| 730 | See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions, |
| 731 | `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!', |
| 732 | and `port-conversion-strategy'. |
| 733 | |
| 734 | ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings |
| 735 | |
| 736 | ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets |
| 737 | |
| 738 | The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain |
| 739 | characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined |
| 740 | character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned |
| 741 | Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'. |
| 742 | |
| 743 | ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters |
| 744 | |
| 745 | `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules. |
| 746 | Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on |
| 747 | Unicode code points. |
| 748 | |
| 749 | ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed |
| 750 | |
| 751 | These variables contained the names of control characters and were |
| 752 | used when writing characters. While these were global, they were |
| 753 | never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private |
| 754 | functions. |
| 755 | |
| 756 | ** EBCDIC support is removed |
| 757 | |
| 758 | There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character |
| 759 | processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed |
| 760 | and was unmaintained. |
| 761 | |
| 762 | ** Compile-time warnings |
| 763 | |
| 764 | Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the |
| 765 | -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add |
| 766 | `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file' |
| 767 | invocation. |
| 768 | |
| 769 | Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a |
| 770 | procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the |
| 771 | `#:warnings' as above. |
| 772 | |
| 773 | Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to |
| 774 | warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables. |
| 775 | |
| 776 | ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added. |
| 777 | |
| 778 | This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code |
| 779 | coverage. |
| 780 | |
| 781 | ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily. |
| 782 | |
| 783 | This slightly improves program startup times. |
| 784 | |
| 785 | ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API |
| 786 | |
| 787 | See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'. |
| 788 | |
| 789 | ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme |
| 790 | |
| 791 | As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by |
| 792 | special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function |
| 793 | associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the |
| 794 | underlying primitives, like `class-of'. |
| 795 | |
| 796 | This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function |
| 797 | dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to |
| 798 | implement method combinations. |
| 799 | |
| 800 | ** GOOPS cleanups. |
| 801 | |
| 802 | GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl, |
| 803 | but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were |
| 804 | never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators |
| 805 | were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were |
| 806 | applicable structures, but were unusable; entities will come back in the |
| 807 | next alpha release, but with a less stupid name. |
| 808 | |
| 809 | ** Applicable struct support |
| 810 | |
| 811 | One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures. |
| 812 | To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'. |
| 813 | That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of |
| 814 | that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot. |
| 815 | `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's |
| 816 | `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is |
| 817 | `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in |
| 818 | the second slot. This needs to be better documented. |
| 819 | |
| 820 | ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden" |
| 821 | |
| 822 | A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a |
| 823 | call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph" |
| 824 | instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a |
| 825 | vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct. |
| 826 | |
| 827 | ** eqv? not a generic |
| 828 | |
| 829 | One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no |
| 830 | more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which |
| 831 | should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make |
| 832 | sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization. |
| 833 | |
| 834 | ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available. |
| 835 | |
| 836 | Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so |
| 837 | there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter |
| 838 | functions are deprecated. |
| 839 | |
| 840 | ** Fast bit operations. |
| 841 | |
| 842 | The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now |
| 843 | have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation, |
| 844 | it's for number crunching too. |
| 845 | |
| 846 | ** Faster SRFI-9 record access |
| 847 | |
| 848 | SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs, |
| 849 | and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites |
| 850 | inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case |
| 851 | (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply'). |
| 852 | |
| 853 | ** R6RS block comment support |
| 854 | |
| 855 | Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is |
| 856 | marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'. |
| 857 | |
| 858 | ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature |
| 859 | |
| 860 | To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases), |
| 861 | test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this: |
| 862 | |
| 863 | (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile) |
| 864 | ;; This must be evaluated at compile time. |
| 865 | (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader))) |
| 866 | (guile |
| 867 | ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a |
| 868 | ;; separate compilation phase. |
| 869 | (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader))) |
| 870 | |
| 871 | ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call. |
| 872 | |
| 873 | Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the |
| 874 | stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved |
| 875 | backtrace. This has been fixed. |
| 876 | |
| 877 | ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions |
| 878 | |
| 879 | These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions. |
| 880 | |
| 881 | ** New procedure, `make-promise' |
| 882 | |
| 883 | `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'. |
| 884 | |
| 885 | ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument |
| 886 | |
| 887 | Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator. |
| 888 | |
| 889 | ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir' |
| 890 | |
| 891 | ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'. |
| 892 | |
| 893 | `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local |
| 894 | variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound |
| 895 | the variable. This was an error, and was fixed. |
| 896 | |
| 897 | ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated. |
| 898 | |
| 899 | As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has |
| 900 | no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning. |
| 901 | |
| 902 | ** New readline history functions |
| 903 | |
| 904 | The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history, |
| 905 | write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU |
| 906 | History library functions. |
| 907 | |
| 908 | ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: |
| 909 | dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype |
| 910 | |
| 911 | Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type, |
| 912 | respectively. |
| 913 | |
| 914 | ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda' |
| 915 | |
| 916 | * Changes to the C interface |
| 917 | |
| 918 | ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector |
| 919 | |
| 920 | The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a |
| 921 | backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine, |
| 922 | `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added. |
| 923 | |
| 924 | Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C |
| 925 | code easier and less error-prone. |
| 926 | |
| 927 | ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends. |
| 928 | |
| 929 | `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX', |
| 930 | `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now |
| 931 | available to C. Have fun! |
| 932 | |
| 933 | ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed. |
| 934 | |
| 935 | ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF |
| 936 | |
| 937 | This makes these internal functions technically not callable from |
| 938 | application code. |
| 939 | |
| 940 | ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument |
| 941 | indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array. |
| 942 | |
| 943 | ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs |
| 944 | |
| 945 | From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some |
| 946 | odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or |
| 947 | SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws |
| 948 | is gone. |
| 949 | |
| 950 | ** Remove old evaluator closures |
| 951 | |
| 952 | There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data |
| 953 | structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted |
| 954 | procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a |
| 955 | newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for |
| 956 | details. |
| 957 | |
| 958 | ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures |
| 959 | |
| 960 | It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes |
| 961 | allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention. |
| 962 | Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were |
| 963 | defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The |
| 964 | solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well |
| 965 | both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch. |
| 966 | |
| 967 | Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs", |
| 968 | primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and |
| 969 | rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM |
| 970 | procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of |
| 971 | arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a |
| 972 | special bytecode to apply the gsubr. |
| 973 | |
| 974 | This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing |
| 975 | them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more |
| 976 | debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for |
| 977 | example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application |
| 978 | mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls. |
| 979 | |
| 980 | However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more |
| 981 | `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as |
| 982 | they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE', |
| 983 | `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and |
| 984 | `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS' |
| 985 | `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'. |
| 986 | |
| 987 | Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr', |
| 988 | `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and |
| 989 | `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes, |
| 990 | and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family |
| 991 | instead. |
| 992 | |
| 993 | Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the |
| 994 | scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive |
| 995 | procedures. |
| 996 | |
| 997 | ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces |
| 998 | |
| 999 | Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp', |
| 1000 | `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v', |
| 1001 | `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros |
| 1002 | `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM', |
| 1003 | `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'. |
| 1004 | |
| 1005 | ** Remove unused snarf macros |
| 1006 | |
| 1007 | `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1' |
| 1008 | are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead. |
| 1009 | |
| 1010 | ** Add foreign value wrapper |
| 1011 | |
| 1012 | Guile now has a datatype for aliasing "foreign" values, such as native |
| 1013 | long values. This should be useful for making a proper foreign function |
| 1014 | interface. Interested hackers should see libguile/foreign.h. |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 | ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn' |
| 1017 | |
| 1018 | `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments. |
| 1019 | `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments. |
| 1020 | |
| 1021 | ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes |
| 1022 | |
| 1023 | Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now |
| 1024 | they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes. |
| 1025 | |
| 1026 | ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation |
| 1027 | |
| 1028 | If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To |
| 1029 | that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when |
| 1030 | the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes |
| 1031 | in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never |
| 1032 | correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of |
| 1033 | such changes. |
| 1034 | |
| 1035 | ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs |
| 1036 | |
| 1037 | Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB |
| 1038 | objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM |
| 1039 | trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the |
| 1040 | trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal, |
| 1041 | non-SMOB case. |
| 1042 | |
| 1043 | The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from |
| 1044 | 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and |
| 1045 | `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now |
| 1046 | deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures. |
| 1047 | |
| 1048 | ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface |
| 1049 | |
| 1050 | This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'. |
| 1051 | |
| 1052 | ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()' |
| 1053 | |
| 1054 | It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a |
| 1055 | full module lookup. |
| 1056 | |
| 1057 | ** Inline vector allocation |
| 1058 | |
| 1059 | Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their |
| 1060 | data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is |
| 1061 | true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection |
| 1062 | available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing |
| 1063 | memory region. |
| 1064 | |
| 1065 | ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists |
| 1066 | |
| 1067 | `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array |
| 1068 | constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful. |
| 1069 | |
| 1070 | ** Stack refactor |
| 1071 | |
| 1072 | In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is |
| 1073 | no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has |
| 1074 | a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API |
| 1075 | considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is |
| 1076 | in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly. |
| 1077 | |
| 1078 | ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system. |
| 1079 | |
| 1080 | There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a |
| 1081 | minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly |
| 1082 | obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object', |
| 1083 | `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols |
| 1084 | from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these |
| 1085 | were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel. |
| 1086 | |
| 1087 | ** No future. |
| 1088 | |
| 1089 | Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever |
| 1090 | shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a |
| 1091 | part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be |
| 1092 | better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is. |
| 1093 | |
| 1094 | ** Deprecate trampolines |
| 1095 | |
| 1096 | There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and |
| 1097 | so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the |
| 1098 | procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this |
| 1099 | optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated. |
| 1100 | Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead. |
| 1101 | |
| 1102 | ** Better support for Lisp `nil'. |
| 1103 | |
| 1104 | The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very |
| 1105 | efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or |
| 1106 | Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates |
| 1107 | like scm_is_null_or_nil. Probably in the future we will #define |
| 1108 | scm_is_null to scm_is_null_or_nil. |
| 1109 | |
| 1110 | ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs. |
| 1111 | |
| 1112 | Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate |
| 1113 | much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's |
| 1114 | memory footprint. |
| 1115 | |
| 1116 | ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error' |
| 1117 | ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found' |
| 1118 | |
| 1119 | ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type |
| 1120 | |
| 1121 | Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its |
| 1122 | definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'. |
| 1123 | |
| 1124 | ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed |
| 1125 | |
| 1126 | ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve, |
| 1127 | scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array, |
| 1128 | scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref, |
| 1129 | scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1 |
| 1130 | |
| 1131 | These functions have been deprecated since early 2005. |
| 1132 | |
| 1133 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 1134 | |
| 1135 | ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+ |
| 1136 | |
| 1137 | In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or |
| 1138 | later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute |
| 1139 | part of Guile). |
| 1140 | |
| 1141 | ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual |
| 1142 | |
| 1143 | GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals. |
| 1144 | This content is now included in Guile's manual directly. |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 | ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config' |
| 1147 | |
| 1148 | `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from |
| 1149 | `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that |
| 1150 | guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of |
| 1151 | guile-config. |
| 1152 | |
| 1153 | ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc' |
| 1154 | |
| 1155 | Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf |
| 1156 | macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'. |
| 1157 | |
| 1158 | ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache |
| 1159 | |
| 1160 | If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files |
| 1161 | to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific. |
| 1162 | |
| 1163 | ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path |
| 1164 | |
| 1165 | Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions |
| 1166 | (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to |
| 1167 | be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions |
| 1168 | directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensionsdir |
| 1169 | guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory. |
| 1170 | |
| 1171 | ** New dependency: libgc |
| 1172 | |
| 1173 | See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information. |
| 1174 | |
| 1175 | ** New dependency: GNU libunistring |
| 1176 | |
| 1177 | See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our |
| 1178 | Unicode support uses routines from libunistring. |
| 1179 | |
| 1180 | |
| 1181 | \f |
| 1182 | Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7) |
| 1183 | |
| 1184 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1185 | |
| 1186 | ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers |
| 1187 | ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64 |
| 1188 | ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses |
| 1189 | |
| 1190 | \f |
| 1191 | Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6) |
| 1192 | |
| 1193 | * New modules (see the manual for details) |
| 1194 | |
| 1195 | ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables |
| 1196 | |
| 1197 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1198 | |
| 1199 | ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated' |
| 1200 | ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault |
| 1201 | ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion |
| 1202 | ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec |
| 1203 | ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror |
| 1204 | ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64) |
| 1205 | ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3) |
| 1206 | ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*' |
| 1207 | ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130) |
| 1208 | ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters |
| 1209 | ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals |
| 1210 | |
| 1211 | ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase) |
| 1212 | |
| 1213 | Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being |
| 1214 | transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error. |
| 1215 | Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified |
| 1216 | module binding). |
| 1217 | |
| 1218 | ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865) |
| 1219 | |
| 1220 | \f |
| 1221 | Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5) |
| 1222 | |
| 1223 | * New features (see the manual for details) |
| 1224 | |
| 1225 | ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()' |
| 1226 | |
| 1227 | ** Single stepping through code from Emacs |
| 1228 | |
| 1229 | When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use |
| 1230 | `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See |
| 1231 | `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details. |
| 1232 | |
| 1233 | ** New "guile(1)" man page! |
| 1234 | |
| 1235 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 1236 | |
| 1237 | ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used |
| 1238 | |
| 1239 | Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer |
| 1240 | available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode". |
| 1241 | |
| 1242 | ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated |
| 1243 | |
| 1244 | Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See |
| 1245 | the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details. |
| 1246 | |
| 1247 | |
| 1248 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1249 | |
| 1250 | ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS |
| 1251 | ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches' |
| 1252 | ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile' |
| 1253 | ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition' |
| 1254 | ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock' |
| 1255 | ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro) |
| 1256 | ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction) |
| 1257 | ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r') |
| 1258 | ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules") |
| 1259 | ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)' |
| 1260 | ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection) |
| 1261 | ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument. |
| 1262 | ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms |
| 1263 | ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the |
| 1264 | same thread |
| 1265 | ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the |
| 1266 | dynamic environment of the call to `raise' |
| 1267 | ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct' |
| 1268 | ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x |
| 1269 | ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string |
| 1270 | |
| 1271 | \f |
| 1272 | Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4) |
| 1273 | |
| 1274 | * Infrastructure changes |
| 1275 | |
| 1276 | ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git |
| 1277 | |
| 1278 | The new repository can be accessed using |
| 1279 | "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at |
| 1280 | http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details. |
| 1281 | |
| 1282 | ** Add support for `pkg-config' |
| 1283 | |
| 1284 | See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details. |
| 1285 | |
| 1286 | * New modules (see the manual for details) |
| 1287 | |
| 1288 | ** `(srfi srfi-88)' |
| 1289 | |
| 1290 | * New features (see the manual for details) |
| 1291 | |
| 1292 | ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax |
| 1293 | ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance |
| 1294 | ** New object-based traps infrastructure |
| 1295 | |
| 1296 | This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level |
| 1297 | evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging |
| 1298 | features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling. |
| 1299 | See the `Traps' node of the manual for details. |
| 1300 | |
| 1301 | ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs |
| 1302 | |
| 1303 | Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed |
| 1304 | separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the |
| 1305 | `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details. |
| 1306 | |
| 1307 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1308 | |
| 1309 | ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369) |
| 1310 | ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)' |
| 1311 | |
| 1312 | Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))' |
| 1313 | would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'. |
| 1314 | |
| 1315 | ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature |
| 1316 | ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)' |
| 1317 | |
| 1318 | Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would |
| 1319 | lead to a stack overflow. |
| 1320 | |
| 1321 | ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand' |
| 1322 | ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval' |
| 1323 | ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition' |
| 1324 | ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs" |
| 1325 | ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS |
| 1326 | ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock |
| 1327 | ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later |
| 1328 | ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64 |
| 1329 | ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6 |
| 1330 | ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64 |
| 1331 | ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler |
| 1332 | ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD |
| 1333 | ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6 |
| 1334 | ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs |
| 1335 | ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation |
| 1336 | ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR' |
| 1337 | |
| 1338 | \f |
| 1339 | Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3) |
| 1340 | |
| 1341 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1342 | |
| 1343 | ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader |
| 1344 | ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the |
| 1345 | backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it. |
| 1346 | ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking |
| 1347 | ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument |
| 1348 | ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier) |
| 1349 | ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was |
| 1350 | called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f. |
| 1351 | ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module). |
| 1352 | ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64" |
| 1353 | system and library calls. |
| 1354 | ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR' |
| 1355 | ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time |
| 1356 | ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9) |
| 1357 | ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4 |
| 1358 | uniform vectors on AIX. |
| 1359 | ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads. |
| 1360 | ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I) |
| 1361 | ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1. |
| 1362 | ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support |
| 1363 | ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name) |
| 1364 | |
| 1365 | * New modules (see the manual for details) |
| 1366 | |
| 1367 | ** `(srfi srfi-69)' |
| 1368 | |
| 1369 | * Documentation fixes and improvements |
| 1370 | |
| 1371 | ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation |
| 1372 | |
| 1373 | The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x |
| 1374 | releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed. |
| 1375 | |
| 1376 | ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable |
| 1377 | |
| 1378 | ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method' |
| 1379 | |
| 1380 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 1381 | |
| 1382 | ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence |
| 1383 | |
| 1384 | In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser |
| 1385 | General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been |
| 1386 | fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution. |
| 1387 | |
| 1388 | ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING* |
| 1389 | |
| 1390 | The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level. |
| 1391 | |
| 1392 | \f |
| 1393 | Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2) |
| 1394 | |
| 1395 | * New modules (see the manual for details) |
| 1396 | |
| 1397 | ** `(srfi srfi-35)' |
| 1398 | ** `(srfi srfi-37)' |
| 1399 | |
| 1400 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1401 | |
| 1402 | ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected |
| 1403 | ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash |
| 1404 | ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr |
| 1405 | ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed |
| 1406 | ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed |
| 1407 | ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed |
| 1408 | ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed |
| 1409 | |
| 1410 | * Implementation improvements |
| 1411 | |
| 1412 | ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time |
| 1413 | ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster |
| 1414 | |
| 1415 | \f |
| 1416 | Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1): |
| 1417 | |
| 1418 | * New procedures (see the manual for details) |
| 1419 | |
| 1420 | ** set-program-arguments |
| 1421 | ** make-vtable |
| 1422 | |
| 1423 | * Incompatible changes |
| 1424 | |
| 1425 | ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created |
| 1426 | |
| 1427 | In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible |
| 1428 | from the `define' body. This breaks code like |
| 1429 | "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now |
| 1430 | unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway, |
| 1431 | per Section 5.2.1. |
| 1432 | |
| 1433 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1434 | |
| 1435 | ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form. |
| 1436 | (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.) |
| 1437 | ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems |
| 1438 | ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions |
| 1439 | (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL |
| 1440 | the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or |
| 1441 | extensions.) |
| 1442 | ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg |
| 1443 | ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself |
| 1444 | ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters |
| 1445 | ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound |
| 1446 | ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index |
| 1447 | ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)" |
| 1448 | This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)". |
| 1449 | ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect |
| 1450 | ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset |
| 1451 | ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument |
| 1452 | ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address |
| 1453 | ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history' |
| 1454 | ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?' |
| 1455 | ** Build problems on Solaris fixed |
| 1456 | ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed |
| 1457 | ** Build problems on MinGW fixed |
| 1458 | |
| 1459 | \f |
| 1460 | Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0): |
| 1461 | |
| 1462 | * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems. |
| 1463 | |
| 1464 | * New procedures (see the manual for details) |
| 1465 | |
| 1466 | ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module |
| 1467 | ** scm_primitive__exit - [C] |
| 1468 | ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline) |
| 1469 | ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C] |
| 1470 | ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C] |
| 1471 | ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C] |
| 1472 | ** scm_log - [C] |
| 1473 | ** scm_log10 - [C] |
| 1474 | ** scm_exp - [C] |
| 1475 | ** scm_sqrt - [C] |
| 1476 | |
| 1477 | * Bugs fixed |
| 1478 | |
| 1479 | ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX. |
| 1480 | |
| 1481 | ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset. |
| 1482 | |
| 1483 | ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector. |
| 1484 | |
| 1485 | ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'. |
| 1486 | |
| 1487 | ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'. |
| 1488 | |
| 1489 | ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks. |
| 1490 | |
| 1491 | Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the |
| 1492 | record type of the record they're given is not the type expected. |
| 1493 | (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing). |
| 1494 | |
| 1495 | ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module. |
| 1496 | |
| 1497 | ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs. |
| 1498 | |
| 1499 | Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that |
| 1500 | accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is. |
| 1501 | |
| 1502 | ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly. |
| 1503 | |
| 1504 | Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key |
| 1505 | last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first. |
| 1506 | |
| 1507 | ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed. |
| 1508 | |
| 1509 | ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector. |
| 1510 | |
| 1511 | ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed. |
| 1512 | |
| 1513 | ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars. |
| 1514 | |
| 1515 | ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly. |
| 1516 | |
| 1517 | ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions. |
| 1518 | |
| 1519 | ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks. |
| 1520 | |
| 1521 | This matches the srfi-9 specification. |
| 1522 | |
| 1523 | ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number. |
| 1524 | |
| 1525 | Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had |
| 1526 | the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that |
| 1527 | file was on a different device. |
| 1528 | |
| 1529 | \f |
| 1530 | Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series): |
| 1531 | |
| 1532 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 1533 | |
| 1534 | ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License. |
| 1535 | |
| 1536 | ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License. |
| 1537 | |
| 1538 | ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp). |
| 1539 | |
| 1540 | Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic. |
| 1541 | |
| 1542 | ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers. |
| 1543 | |
| 1544 | That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's |
| 1545 | headers. |
| 1546 | |
| 1547 | ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number. |
| 1548 | |
| 1549 | Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version |
| 1550 | functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just |
| 1551 | the normal full version string without the final micro-version number, |
| 1552 | so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version |
| 1553 | should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for |
| 1554 | items like the versioned share directory name |
| 1555 | i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8. |
| 1556 | |
| 1557 | Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for |
| 1558 | things like the versioned share directory can be particularly |
| 1559 | important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory |
| 1560 | that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them |
| 1561 | with each micro release during a stable series. |
| 1562 | |
| 1563 | ** Thread implementation has changed. |
| 1564 | |
| 1565 | When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual |
| 1566 | threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't |
| 1567 | actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now |
| 1568 | equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API |
| 1569 | is always present, although you might not be able to create new |
| 1570 | threads. |
| 1571 | |
| 1572 | When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes", |
| 1573 | you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX |
| 1574 | threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous |
| 1575 | "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like |
| 1576 | the GC. |
| 1577 | |
| 1578 | The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads, |
| 1579 | in which case "null" threads are used. |
| 1580 | |
| 1581 | See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading", |
| 1582 | "Blocking", and others. |
| 1583 | |
| 1584 | ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features. |
| 1585 | |
| 1586 | This is a milder form of deprecation. |
| 1587 | |
| 1588 | Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is |
| 1589 | OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is |
| 1590 | used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated' |
| 1591 | features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless |
| 1592 | implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow. |
| 1593 | |
| 1594 | You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with |
| 1595 | the '--disable-discouraged' option. |
| 1596 | |
| 1597 | ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time. |
| 1598 | |
| 1599 | (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable |
| 1600 | 'warn-deprecated) switches them off. |
| 1601 | |
| 1602 | ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has |
| 1603 | been added. |
| 1604 | |
| 1605 | This SRFI is always available. |
| 1606 | |
| 1607 | ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added. |
| 1608 | |
| 1609 | The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is |
| 1610 | available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme |
| 1611 | extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension, |
| 1612 | "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1 |
| 1613 | 13 14)). |
| 1614 | |
| 1615 | ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'. |
| 1616 | |
| 1617 | The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which |
| 1618 | provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize |
| 1619 | parameters without currying. |
| 1620 | |
| 1621 | ** New module (srfi srfi-31) |
| 1622 | |
| 1623 | This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form |
| 1624 | `rec' for recursive evaluation. |
| 1625 | |
| 1626 | ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have |
| 1627 | been merged with the core, making their functionality always |
| 1628 | available. |
| 1629 | |
| 1630 | The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together |
| 1631 | with a renaming import, for example. |
| 1632 | |
| 1633 | ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl. |
| 1634 | |
| 1635 | The official version is good enough now. |
| 1636 | |
| 1637 | ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'. |
| 1638 | |
| 1639 | Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always |
| 1640 | provided. Use 'make html'. |
| 1641 | |
| 1642 | ** New module (ice-9 serialize): |
| 1643 | |
| 1644 | (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you |
| 1645 | don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you |
| 1646 | have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to |
| 1647 | other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information. |
| 1648 | |
| 1649 | ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed. |
| 1650 | |
| 1651 | Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included |
| 1652 | in Guile. |
| 1653 | |
| 1654 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 1655 | |
| 1656 | ** New command line option `-L'. |
| 1657 | |
| 1658 | This option adds a directory to the front of the load path. |
| 1659 | |
| 1660 | ** New command line option `--no-debug'. |
| 1661 | |
| 1662 | Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging |
| 1663 | evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions. |
| 1664 | |
| 1665 | ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator. |
| 1666 | |
| 1667 | Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the |
| 1668 | debugging evaluator gives better error messages. |
| 1669 | |
| 1670 | ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument. |
| 1671 | |
| 1672 | This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to |
| 1673 | be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like |
| 1674 | |
| 1675 | #! /bin/sh |
| 1676 | exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@" |
| 1677 | !# |
| 1678 | |
| 1679 | (define-module (demo) |
| 1680 | :export (main)) |
| 1681 | |
| 1682 | (define (main args) |
| 1683 | (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args)) |
| 1684 | |
| 1685 | |
| 1686 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 1687 | |
| 1688 | ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics |
| 1689 | |
| 1690 | Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In |
| 1691 | particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which |
| 1692 | they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy. |
| 1693 | |
| 1694 | They no longer drop cyclic data structures. |
| 1695 | |
| 1696 | The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no |
| 1697 | longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument. |
| 1698 | |
| 1699 | ** New function hashx-remove! |
| 1700 | |
| 1701 | This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions. |
| 1702 | |
| 1703 | ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation |
| 1704 | barriers and dynamic states. |
| 1705 | |
| 1706 | Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the |
| 1707 | fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the |
| 1708 | second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the |
| 1709 | manual. |
| 1710 | |
| 1711 | To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the |
| 1712 | control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation |
| 1713 | Barriers" in the manual. |
| 1714 | |
| 1715 | The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily |
| 1716 | installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier. |
| 1717 | |
| 1718 | ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end. |
| 1719 | |
| 1720 | Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not |
| 1721 | happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled |
| 1722 | manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme |
| 1723 | variable %load-path. |
| 1724 | |
| 1725 | ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled. |
| 1726 | |
| 1727 | It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform |
| 1728 | array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details. |
| 1729 | |
| 1730 | Some non-compatible changes have been made: |
| 1731 | - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays. |
| 1732 | - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric |
| 1733 | vectors. |
| 1734 | - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero. |
| 1735 | - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given. |
| 1736 | |
| 1737 | There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding |
| 1738 | procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include |
| 1739 | strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors. |
| 1740 | |
| 1741 | Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still |
| 1742 | have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read! |
| 1743 | and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and |
| 1744 | bitvectors. |
| 1745 | |
| 1746 | ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing |
| 1747 | substrings and read-only strings. |
| 1748 | |
| 1749 | Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared, |
| 1750 | substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more |
| 1751 | information. |
| 1752 | |
| 1753 | ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error. |
| 1754 | |
| 1755 | By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this |
| 1756 | example: |
| 1757 | |
| 1758 | guile> (car 'a) |
| 1759 | |
| 1760 | Backtrace: |
| 1761 | In current input: |
| 1762 | 1: 0* [car {a}] |
| 1763 | |
| 1764 | <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)): |
| 1765 | <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a |
| 1766 | ABORT: (wrong-type-arg) |
| 1767 | |
| 1768 | The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new |
| 1769 | printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For |
| 1770 | example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold |
| 1771 | on an ANSI terminal: |
| 1772 | |
| 1773 | (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m") |
| 1774 | (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m") |
| 1775 | |
| 1776 | |
| 1777 | ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added. |
| 1778 | |
| 1779 | See the manual for details. |
| 1780 | |
| 1781 | ** New syntax '@' and '@@': |
| 1782 | |
| 1783 | You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by |
| 1784 | writing |
| 1785 | |
| 1786 | (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) |
| 1787 | |
| 1788 | For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access |
| 1789 | the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print) |
| 1790 | module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use |
| 1791 | '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val). |
| 1792 | |
| 1793 | The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@', |
| 1794 | but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is |
| 1795 | intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not |
| 1796 | for ordinary code. |
| 1797 | |
| 1798 | ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined. |
| 1799 | |
| 1800 | Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as |
| 1801 | a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a |
| 1802 | symbol. |
| 1803 | |
| 1804 | Previously: |
| 1805 | |
| 1806 | guile> #:12 |
| 1807 | #:#{12}# |
| 1808 | guile> #:#{12}# |
| 1809 | #:#{\#{12}\#}# |
| 1810 | guile> #:(a b c) |
| 1811 | #:#{}# |
| 1812 | ERROR: In expression (a b c): |
| 1813 | Unbound variable: a |
| 1814 | guile> #: foo |
| 1815 | #:#{}# |
| 1816 | ERROR: Unbound variable: foo |
| 1817 | |
| 1818 | Now: |
| 1819 | |
| 1820 | guile> #:12 |
| 1821 | ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12 |
| 1822 | guile> #:#{12}# |
| 1823 | #:#{12}# |
| 1824 | guile> #:(a b c) |
| 1825 | ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c) |
| 1826 | guile> #: foo |
| 1827 | #:foo |
| 1828 | |
| 1829 | ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be |
| 1830 | controlled. |
| 1831 | |
| 1832 | The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols |
| 1833 | are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The |
| 1834 | default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read |
| 1835 | option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus: |
| 1836 | |
| 1837 | guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo")) |
| 1838 | guile> (read-set! keywords #f) |
| 1839 | guile> foo |
| 1840 | :foo |
| 1841 | guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix) |
| 1842 | guile> foo |
| 1843 | #{:foo}# |
| 1844 | guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f) |
| 1845 | guile> foo |
| 1846 | :foo |
| 1847 | |
| 1848 | ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue' |
| 1849 | |
| 1850 | break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not |
| 1851 | documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented |
| 1852 | parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been |
| 1853 | dropped. |
| 1854 | |
| 1855 | ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name |
| 1856 | 'call/cc'. |
| 1857 | |
| 1858 | ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings. |
| 1859 | |
| 1860 | The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported |
| 1861 | bindings. |
| 1862 | |
| 1863 | The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates' |
| 1864 | handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name |
| 1865 | collision, write: |
| 1866 | |
| 1867 | (define-module (foo) |
| 1868 | :use-module (bar) |
| 1869 | :use-module (baz) |
| 1870 | :duplicates check) |
| 1871 | |
| 1872 | The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision |
| 1873 | has been detected is to |
| 1874 | |
| 1875 | 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement. |
| 1876 | 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding). |
| 1877 | 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to |
| 1878 | the old behavior). |
| 1879 | |
| 1880 | If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you |
| 1881 | can add the line: |
| 1882 | |
| 1883 | (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last) |
| 1884 | |
| 1885 | to your .guile init file. |
| 1886 | |
| 1887 | ** New define-module option: :replace |
| 1888 | |
| 1889 | :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a |
| 1890 | replacement. |
| 1891 | |
| 1892 | A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement |
| 1893 | for the core binding `format'. |
| 1894 | |
| 1895 | ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system |
| 1896 | |
| 1897 | There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add |
| 1898 | a prefix to all imported bindings. |
| 1899 | |
| 1900 | (define-module (foo) |
| 1901 | :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:)) |
| 1902 | |
| 1903 | will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding |
| 1904 | the prefix `bar:'. |
| 1905 | |
| 1906 | ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged. |
| 1907 | |
| 1908 | When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic |
| 1909 | functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is |
| 1910 | activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'. |
| 1911 | |
| 1912 | ** New function: effective-version |
| 1913 | |
| 1914 | Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full |
| 1915 | version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes |
| 1916 | to the distribution" above. |
| 1917 | |
| 1918 | ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends |
| 1919 | |
| 1920 | These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new |
| 1921 | threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details. |
| 1922 | |
| 1923 | ** New function 'try-mutex'. |
| 1924 | |
| 1925 | This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately |
| 1926 | instead of blocking and indicate failure. |
| 1927 | |
| 1928 | ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout. |
| 1929 | |
| 1930 | The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional |
| 1931 | argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be |
| 1932 | aborted. |
| 1933 | |
| 1934 | ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'. |
| 1935 | |
| 1936 | ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'. |
| 1937 | |
| 1938 | ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads. |
| 1939 | |
| 1940 | The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that |
| 1941 | specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the |
| 1942 | argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called |
| 1943 | 'sigaction'. |
| 1944 | |
| 1945 | Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that |
| 1946 | specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is |
| 1947 | omitted, the async will run in the thread that called |
| 1948 | 'system-async-mark'. |
| 1949 | |
| 1950 | C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and |
| 1951 | scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument. |
| 1952 | |
| 1953 | When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting |
| 1954 | for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can |
| 1955 | be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for |
| 1956 | example. |
| 1957 | |
| 1958 | ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated. |
| 1959 | |
| 1960 | You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'. |
| 1961 | The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged |
| 1962 | now. |
| 1963 | |
| 1964 | ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and |
| 1965 | 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs' |
| 1966 | |
| 1967 | The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will |
| 1968 | block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level |
| 1969 | while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a |
| 1970 | procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one |
| 1971 | level for the current thread. |
| 1972 | |
| 1973 | Only system asyncs are affected by these functions. |
| 1974 | |
| 1975 | ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated. |
| 1976 | |
| 1977 | Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs' |
| 1978 | instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be |
| 1979 | nested. |
| 1980 | |
| 1981 | ** New function 'unsetenv'. |
| 1982 | |
| 1983 | ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'. |
| 1984 | |
| 1985 | It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but |
| 1986 | only on top-level). |
| 1987 | |
| 1988 | ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs. |
| 1989 | |
| 1990 | Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and |
| 1991 | 'not-a-numbers'. |
| 1992 | |
| 1993 | There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0" |
| 1994 | (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as |
| 1995 | "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart. |
| 1996 | |
| 1997 | Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the |
| 1998 | sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t |
| 1999 | for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is |
| 2000 | not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself. |
| 2001 | |
| 2002 | For example |
| 2003 | |
| 2004 | (/ 1 0.0) |
| 2005 | => +inf.0 |
| 2006 | |
| 2007 | (/ 0 0.0) |
| 2008 | => +nan.0 |
| 2009 | |
| 2010 | (/ 0) |
| 2011 | ERROR: Numerical overflow |
| 2012 | |
| 2013 | Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the |
| 2014 | special values. |
| 2015 | |
| 2016 | ** Inexact zero can have a sign. |
| 2017 | |
| 2018 | Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your |
| 2019 | platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to |
| 2020 | '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example |
| 2021 | |
| 2022 | (- 0.0) |
| 2023 | => -0.0 |
| 2024 | |
| 2025 | (= 0.0 (- 0.0)) |
| 2026 | => #t |
| 2027 | |
| 2028 | (eqv? 0.0 (- 0.0)) |
| 2029 | => #f |
| 2030 | |
| 2031 | ** Guile now has exact rationals. |
| 2032 | |
| 2033 | Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with |
| 2034 | them is also done exactly, of course: |
| 2035 | |
| 2036 | (* 1/3 3/2) |
| 2037 | => 1/2 |
| 2038 | |
| 2039 | ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers |
| 2040 | for exact arguments. |
| 2041 | |
| 2042 | For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it |
| 2043 | returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1. |
| 2044 | |
| 2045 | ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers. |
| 2046 | |
| 2047 | Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an |
| 2048 | integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly |
| 2049 | equal to a floating point number. For example: |
| 2050 | |
| 2051 | (inexact->exact 1.234) |
| 2052 | => 694680242521899/562949953421312 |
| 2053 | |
| 2054 | When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly: |
| 2055 | |
| 2056 | (inexact->exact (round 1.234)) |
| 2057 | => 1 |
| 2058 | |
| 2059 | ** New function 'rationalize'. |
| 2060 | |
| 2061 | This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real |
| 2062 | number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above): |
| 2063 | |
| 2064 | (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000) |
| 2065 | => 58/47 |
| 2066 | |
| 2067 | Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact |
| 2068 | result when both its arguments are exact. |
| 2069 | |
| 2070 | ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers. |
| 2071 | |
| 2072 | Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers |
| 2073 | were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0) |
| 2074 | returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error. |
| 2075 | |
| 2076 | ** Guile now has uninterned symbols. |
| 2077 | |
| 2078 | The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This |
| 2079 | is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique. |
| 2080 | However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in. |
| 2081 | |
| 2082 | Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is |
| 2083 | interned or not. |
| 2084 | |
| 2085 | ** pretty-print has more options. |
| 2086 | |
| 2087 | The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now |
| 2088 | also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like |
| 2089 | maximum output width. See the manual for details. |
| 2090 | |
| 2091 | ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'. |
| 2092 | |
| 2093 | Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly |
| 2094 | compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only |
| 2095 | `equal?' if they are `eq?'. |
| 2096 | |
| 2097 | ** `(begin)' is now valid. |
| 2098 | |
| 2099 | You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified> |
| 2100 | when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context. |
| 2101 | |
| 2102 | ** Deprecated: procedure->macro |
| 2103 | |
| 2104 | Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware |
| 2105 | that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to |
| 2106 | evaluation. |
| 2107 | |
| 2108 | ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure |
| 2109 | |
| 2110 | The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of |
| 2111 | either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th |
| 2112 | element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk |
| 2113 | that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately |
| 2114 | without the soft port blocking. |
| 2115 | |
| 2116 | ** Deprecated: undefine |
| 2117 | |
| 2118 | There is no replacement for undefine. |
| 2119 | |
| 2120 | ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol |
| 2121 | have been discouraged. |
| 2122 | |
| 2123 | They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used |
| 2124 | directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally |
| 2125 | stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol |
| 2126 | without the dash. |
| 2127 | |
| 2128 | Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead. |
| 2129 | |
| 2130 | ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete |
| 2131 | |
| 2132 | Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words, |
| 2133 | they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full |
| 2134 | continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation |
| 2135 | by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so |
| 2136 | desires. |
| 2137 | |
| 2138 | The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing |
| 2139 | code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will |
| 2140 | be removed in the next major Guile release. |
| 2141 | |
| 2142 | ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking' |
| 2143 | |
| 2144 | `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme |
| 2145 | expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an |
| 2146 | enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of |
| 2147 | an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to |
| 2148 | do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose |
| 2149 | cdr is the modified expression or return value. |
| 2150 | |
| 2151 | * Changes to the C interface |
| 2152 | |
| 2153 | ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer |
| 2154 | take a 'delete' function argument. |
| 2155 | |
| 2156 | This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to |
| 2157 | remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable. |
| 2158 | |
| 2159 | This is an incompatible change. |
| 2160 | |
| 2161 | ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism |
| 2162 | |
| 2163 | The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is |
| 2164 | actually removed from Guile when it is configured with |
| 2165 | --disable-deprecated. |
| 2166 | |
| 2167 | See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information. |
| 2168 | |
| 2169 | ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and |
| 2170 | Scheme values has been added. |
| 2171 | |
| 2172 | These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be |
| 2173 | easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older |
| 2174 | alternatives. |
| 2175 | |
| 2176 | - int scm_is_* (...) |
| 2177 | |
| 2178 | These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of |
| 2179 | SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example. |
| 2180 | |
| 2181 | - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...) |
| 2182 | |
| 2183 | These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate |
| 2184 | C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from |
| 2185 | a SCM to an int. |
| 2186 | |
| 2187 | - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...) |
| 2188 | |
| 2189 | These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example, |
| 2190 | scm_from_int for ints. |
| 2191 | |
| 2192 | There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings, |
| 2193 | symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in |
| 2194 | the API section together with the types that they apply to. |
| 2195 | |
| 2196 | ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added. |
| 2197 | |
| 2198 | The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar, |
| 2199 | scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle. |
| 2200 | They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles |
| 2201 | directly. |
| 2202 | |
| 2203 | ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged. |
| 2204 | |
| 2205 | Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead. |
| 2206 | |
| 2207 | ** The INUM macros have been deprecated. |
| 2208 | |
| 2209 | A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions, |
| 2210 | although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the |
| 2211 | following alternatives. |
| 2212 | |
| 2213 | SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar |
| 2214 | SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar |
| 2215 | SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar |
| 2216 | SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar |
| 2217 | |
| 2218 | SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will |
| 2219 | do the validating for you. |
| 2220 | |
| 2221 | ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real |
| 2222 | have been discouraged. |
| 2223 | |
| 2224 | Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for |
| 2225 | new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit |
| 2226 | the naming scheme. |
| 2227 | |
| 2228 | ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged. |
| 2229 | |
| 2230 | They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP |
| 2231 | evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new |
| 2232 | code. |
| 2233 | |
| 2234 | ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged. |
| 2235 | |
| 2236 | Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming |
| 2237 | conventions. |
| 2238 | |
| 2239 | ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have |
| 2240 | been discouraged. |
| 2241 | |
| 2242 | Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead. |
| 2243 | |
| 2244 | ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and |
| 2245 | are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively. |
| 2246 | |
| 2247 | These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and |
| 2248 | scm_truncate_number should have. |
| 2249 | |
| 2250 | ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and |
| 2251 | scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated. |
| 2252 | |
| 2253 | Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with |
| 2254 | scm_substring. |
| 2255 | |
| 2256 | ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length, |
| 2257 | scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring, |
| 2258 | scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy. |
| 2259 | |
| 2260 | These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly |
| 2261 | easier to use from C. |
| 2262 | |
| 2263 | ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH, |
| 2264 | SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated. |
| 2265 | |
| 2266 | They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings |
| 2267 | and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of |
| 2268 | mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of |
| 2269 | Unicode. |
| 2270 | |
| 2271 | When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string |
| 2272 | functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref, |
| 2273 | scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the |
| 2274 | manual since many more such functions are now provided than |
| 2275 | previously. |
| 2276 | |
| 2277 | When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the |
| 2278 | scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use |
| 2279 | scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the |
| 2280 | new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy |
| 2281 | and is thus quite efficient. |
| 2282 | |
| 2283 | ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged. |
| 2284 | |
| 2285 | They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit |
| 2286 | about the character encoding. |
| 2287 | |
| 2288 | Replace according to the following table: |
| 2289 | |
| 2290 | scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string |
| 2291 | scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn |
| 2292 | scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string |
| 2293 | scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn |
| 2294 | scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string |
| 2295 | scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string |
| 2296 | scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln |
| 2297 | scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol |
| 2298 | scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol |
| 2299 | |
| 2300 | SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq |
| 2301 | SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p |
| 2302 | |
| 2303 | scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword |
| 2304 | |
| 2305 | ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are |
| 2306 | now also available to C code. |
| 2307 | |
| 2308 | ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated. |
| 2309 | |
| 2310 | Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that |
| 2311 | the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name', |
| 2312 | as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do. |
| 2313 | |
| 2314 | ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has |
| 2315 | been added. |
| 2316 | |
| 2317 | See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C". |
| 2318 | |
| 2319 | ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been |
| 2320 | unceremoniously removed. |
| 2321 | |
| 2322 | This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of |
| 2323 | Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform |
| 2324 | Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively. |
| 2325 | |
| 2326 | The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, |
| 2327 | SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG, |
| 2328 | SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, |
| 2329 | SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, |
| 2330 | SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG, |
| 2331 | SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET, |
| 2332 | SCM_BITVEC_CLR. |
| 2333 | |
| 2334 | ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated. |
| 2335 | |
| 2336 | Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements, |
| 2337 | scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector, |
| 2338 | SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the |
| 2339 | manual for more details. |
| 2340 | |
| 2341 | Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, |
| 2342 | SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS. |
| 2343 | |
| 2344 | The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE, |
| 2345 | SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, |
| 2346 | SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS. |
| 2347 | |
| 2348 | ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated. |
| 2349 | |
| 2350 | Migrate according to the following table: |
| 2351 | |
| 2352 | scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc. |
| 2353 | scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array |
| 2354 | scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array |
| 2355 | scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref |
| 2356 | scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use |
| 2357 | scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos |
| 2358 | scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write |
| 2359 | |
| 2360 | SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array |
| 2361 | SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank |
| 2362 | SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims |
| 2363 | SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use |
| 2364 | SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use |
| 2365 | SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar |
| 2366 | SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use |
| 2367 | |
| 2368 | ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated. |
| 2369 | |
| 2370 | Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer |
| 2371 | to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits. |
| 2372 | |
| 2373 | This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme |
| 2374 | heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local |
| 2375 | variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it |
| 2376 | non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both. |
| 2377 | |
| 2378 | ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc. |
| 2379 | |
| 2380 | These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the |
| 2381 | second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for |
| 2382 | SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3. |
| 2383 | |
| 2384 | Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be |
| 2385 | used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob. |
| 2386 | |
| 2387 | And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for |
| 2388 | accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there |
| 2389 | is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate |
| 2390 | smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc. |
| 2391 | |
| 2392 | ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries. |
| 2393 | |
| 2394 | There is a new set of functions that essentially do what |
| 2395 | scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient |
| 2396 | for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to |
| 2397 | prevent a potential memory leak: |
| 2398 | |
| 2399 | void |
| 2400 | foo () |
| 2401 | { |
| 2402 | char *mem; |
| 2403 | |
| 2404 | scm_dynwind_begin (0); |
| 2405 | |
| 2406 | mem = scm_malloc (100); |
| 2407 | scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY); |
| 2408 | |
| 2409 | /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error. |
| 2410 | SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless. |
| 2411 | */ |
| 2412 | |
| 2413 | bar (); |
| 2414 | |
| 2415 | scm_dynwind_end (); |
| 2416 | |
| 2417 | /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by |
| 2418 | SCM_DYNWIND_END as well. |
| 2419 | */ |
| 2420 | } |
| 2421 | |
| 2422 | For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual. |
| 2423 | |
| 2424 | ** New function scm_dynwind_free |
| 2425 | |
| 2426 | This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context |
| 2427 | is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be |
| 2428 | replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem). |
| 2429 | |
| 2430 | ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and |
| 2431 | scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs |
| 2432 | |
| 2433 | Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions. |
| 2434 | |
| 2435 | ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs |
| 2436 | |
| 2437 | In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use |
| 2438 | scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for |
| 2439 | scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs. |
| 2440 | |
| 2441 | ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS, |
| 2442 | SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated. |
| 2443 | |
| 2444 | They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal |
| 2445 | delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of |
| 2446 | SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a |
| 2447 | mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the |
| 2448 | manual. |
| 2449 | |
| 2450 | ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable. |
| 2451 | |
| 2452 | Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer |
| 2453 | possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and |
| 2454 | scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead. |
| 2455 | |
| 2456 | ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports |
| 2457 | |
| 2458 | C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind |
| 2459 | context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error". |
| 2460 | |
| 2461 | ** New way to temporarily set fluids |
| 2462 | |
| 2463 | C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see |
| 2464 | above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid. |
| 2465 | |
| 2466 | ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax. |
| 2467 | |
| 2468 | On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and |
| 2469 | uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to |
| 2470 | the largest integer types that Guile knows about. |
| 2471 | |
| 2472 | ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed. |
| 2473 | |
| 2474 | You should not have used them. |
| 2475 | |
| 2476 | ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private. |
| 2477 | |
| 2478 | #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made |
| 2479 | private or renamed with a more suitable public name. |
| 2480 | |
| 2481 | ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated. |
| 2482 | |
| 2483 | This macro is not intended for public use. |
| 2484 | |
| 2485 | ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated. |
| 2486 | |
| 2487 | Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead. |
| 2488 | |
| 2489 | ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated. |
| 2490 | |
| 2491 | Use scm_is_real instead. |
| 2492 | |
| 2493 | ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated. |
| 2494 | |
| 2495 | Use scm_is_complex instead. |
| 2496 | |
| 2497 | ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated. |
| 2498 | |
| 2499 | These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile |
| 2500 | or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present. |
| 2501 | |
| 2502 | The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS, |
| 2503 | DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING. |
| 2504 | |
| 2505 | The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS, |
| 2506 | SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS. |
| 2507 | |
| 2508 | ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated. |
| 2509 | |
| 2510 | There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary |
| 2511 | programs. |
| 2512 | |
| 2513 | ** New function: scm_effective_version |
| 2514 | |
| 2515 | Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full |
| 2516 | version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes |
| 2517 | to the distribution" above. |
| 2518 | |
| 2519 | ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype. |
| 2520 | |
| 2521 | Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two |
| 2522 | arguments are now passed directly: |
| 2523 | |
| 2524 | SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler); |
| 2525 | |
| 2526 | This is an incompatible change. |
| 2527 | |
| 2528 | ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC. |
| 2529 | |
| 2530 | This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined |
| 2531 | function in the init section. |
| 2532 | |
| 2533 | ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported. |
| 2534 | |
| 2535 | ** Garbage collector rewrite. |
| 2536 | |
| 2537 | The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy |
| 2538 | sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells |
| 2539 | are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field |
| 2540 | stays roughly constant. |
| 2541 | |
| 2542 | For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same |
| 2543 | heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the |
| 2544 | environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage |
| 2545 | for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40. |
| 2546 | GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The |
| 2547 | default is 200 kb. |
| 2548 | |
| 2549 | Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with |
| 2550 | the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment |
| 2551 | variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, |
| 2552 | GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used. |
| 2553 | |
| 2554 | For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine |
| 2555 | gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live |
| 2556 | objects for every type. |
| 2557 | |
| 2558 | |
| 2559 | ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p |
| 2560 | |
| 2561 | The name scm_definedp is deprecated. |
| 2562 | |
| 2563 | ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell |
| 2564 | |
| 2565 | This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that |
| 2566 | the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and |
| 2567 | initializes a new cell (see below). |
| 2568 | |
| 2569 | ** New functions for memory management |
| 2570 | |
| 2571 | A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the |
| 2572 | old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and |
| 2573 | indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could |
| 2574 | cause aborts in long running programs. |
| 2575 | |
| 2576 | The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation |
| 2577 | from smob free routines, among other improvements. |
| 2578 | |
| 2579 | The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup, |
| 2580 | scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc, |
| 2581 | scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and |
| 2582 | scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more |
| 2583 | details and for upgrading instructions. |
| 2584 | |
| 2585 | The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They |
| 2586 | are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free, |
| 2587 | scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free. |
| 2588 | |
| 2589 | ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API. |
| 2590 | |
| 2591 | Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API |
| 2592 | has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the |
| 2593 | declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most |
| 2594 | common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can |
| 2595 | be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL. |
| 2596 | |
| 2597 | If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API |
| 2598 | will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for |
| 2599 | linking to the Guile DLL in Windows. |
| 2600 | |
| 2601 | There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and |
| 2602 | SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries. |
| 2603 | |
| 2604 | ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated. |
| 2605 | |
| 2606 | Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old |
| 2607 | macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization |
| 2608 | was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized |
| 2609 | cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and |
| 2610 | SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient. |
| 2611 | |
| 2612 | ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated. |
| 2613 | |
| 2614 | Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p |
| 2615 | instead. |
| 2616 | |
| 2617 | ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated. |
| 2618 | |
| 2619 | Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead. |
| 2620 | |
| 2621 | ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro |
| 2622 | |
| 2623 | Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in |
| 2624 | Scheme, using 'define-macro'. |
| 2625 | |
| 2626 | ** New function scm_c_port_for_each. |
| 2627 | |
| 2628 | This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C |
| 2629 | function as the callback instead of a SCM value. |
| 2630 | |
| 2631 | ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and |
| 2632 | scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged. |
| 2633 | |
| 2634 | Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead. |
| 2635 | |
| 2636 | ** The GC can no longer be blocked. |
| 2637 | |
| 2638 | The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed. |
| 2639 | The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus |
| 2640 | blocking it is not well defined. |
| 2641 | |
| 2642 | ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated. |
| 2643 | |
| 2644 | scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, |
| 2645 | scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, |
| 2646 | scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, |
| 2647 | scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, |
| 2648 | SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, |
| 2649 | scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, |
| 2650 | SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, |
| 2651 | SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, |
| 2652 | SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, |
| 2653 | *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, |
| 2654 | scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, |
| 2655 | SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, |
| 2656 | scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, |
| 2657 | SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, |
| 2658 | scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, |
| 2659 | SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, |
| 2660 | SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, |
| 2661 | SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, |
| 2662 | scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, |
| 2663 | scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated, |
| 2664 | scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info, |
| 2665 | scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, |
| 2666 | SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, |
| 2667 | SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, |
| 2668 | SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, |
| 2669 | SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int, |
| 2670 | scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo, |
| 2671 | scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP, |
| 2672 | SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL, |
| 2673 | SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable, |
| 2674 | SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH. |
| 2675 | |
| 2676 | * Changes to bundled modules |
| 2677 | |
| 2678 | ** (ice-9 debug) |
| 2679 | |
| 2680 | Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile |
| 2681 | to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the |
| 2682 | debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you |
| 2683 | hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your |
| 2684 | code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug). |
| 2685 | |
| 2686 | \f |
| 2687 | Changes since Guile 1.4: |
| 2688 | |
| 2689 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 2690 | |
| 2691 | ** A top-level TODO file is included. |
| 2692 | |
| 2693 | ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel. |
| 2694 | |
| 2695 | Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version, |
| 2696 | i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the |
| 2697 | second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number, |
| 2698 | 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number |
| 2699 | indicate major changes in Guile. |
| 2700 | |
| 2701 | Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd |
| 2702 | minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be |
| 2703 | unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of |
| 2704 | a given MAJOR.MINOR release. |
| 2705 | |
| 2706 | In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version |
| 2707 | no longer return everything but the major version number. They now |
| 2708 | just return the minor version number. Two new functions |
| 2709 | (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the |
| 2710 | micro version number. |
| 2711 | |
| 2712 | In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION. |
| 2713 | |
| 2714 | ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions. |
| 2715 | |
| 2716 | version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and |
| 2717 | SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values. |
| 2718 | |
| 2719 | ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features. |
| 2720 | |
| 2721 | The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the |
| 2722 | environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism. |
| 2723 | See INSTALL and README for more information. |
| 2724 | |
| 2725 | ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures. |
| 2726 | |
| 2727 | Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC |
| 2728 | cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen |
| 2729 | for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64 |
| 2730 | patches. |
| 2731 | |
| 2732 | ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer. |
| 2733 | |
| 2734 | These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the |
| 2735 | same name. |
| 2736 | |
| 2737 | ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default. |
| 2738 | |
| 2739 | For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To |
| 2740 | re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example: |
| 2741 | |
| 2742 | (fluid-set! read-eval? #t) |
| 2743 | |
| 2744 | but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With |
| 2745 | read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can |
| 2746 | be dangerous. |
| 2747 | |
| 2748 | ** New SRFI modules have been added: |
| 2749 | |
| 2750 | SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring |
| 2751 | using a module. |
| 2752 | |
| 2753 | (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing |
| 2754 | procedures. |
| 2755 | |
| 2756 | (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*. |
| 2757 | |
| 2758 | (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes. |
| 2759 | |
| 2760 | (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides |
| 2761 | all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string, |
| 2762 | open-output-string, get-output-string. |
| 2763 | |
| 2764 | (srfi srfi-8) exports receive. |
| 2765 | |
| 2766 | (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type. |
| 2767 | |
| 2768 | (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader |
| 2769 | extension #,(). |
| 2770 | |
| 2771 | (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values. |
| 2772 | |
| 2773 | (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library. |
| 2774 | |
| 2775 | (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library. |
| 2776 | |
| 2777 | (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines |
| 2778 | some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car, |
| 2779 | cdr, vector-ref etc.) |
| 2780 | |
| 2781 | (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library. |
| 2782 | |
| 2783 | ** New scripts / "executable modules" |
| 2784 | |
| 2785 | Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to |
| 2786 | also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available: |
| 2787 | |
| 2788 | display-commentary |
| 2789 | doc-snarf |
| 2790 | generate-autoload |
| 2791 | punify |
| 2792 | read-scheme-source |
| 2793 | use2dot |
| 2794 | |
| 2795 | See README there for more info. |
| 2796 | |
| 2797 | These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program |
| 2798 | "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you. |
| 2799 | For example: |
| 2800 | |
| 2801 | $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm |
| 2802 | |
| 2803 | guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install". |
| 2804 | |
| 2805 | ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch): |
| 2806 | |
| 2807 | stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in |
| 2808 | the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the |
| 2809 | debugger and when re-throwing an error. |
| 2810 | |
| 2811 | ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star) |
| 2812 | |
| 2813 | This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems |
| 2814 | that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues |
| 2815 | to be named `and-let*', of course. |
| 2816 | |
| 2817 | On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named |
| 2818 | (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release. |
| 2819 | |
| 2820 | ** New modules (oop goops) etc.: |
| 2821 | |
| 2822 | (oop goops) |
| 2823 | (oop goops describe) |
| 2824 | (oop goops save) |
| 2825 | (oop goops active-slot) |
| 2826 | (oop goops composite-slot) |
| 2827 | |
| 2828 | The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been |
| 2829 | integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS |
| 2830 | manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory. |
| 2831 | |
| 2832 | ** New module (ice-9 rdelim). |
| 2833 | |
| 2834 | This exports the following procedures which were previously defined |
| 2835 | in the default environment: |
| 2836 | |
| 2837 | read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited! |
| 2838 | %read-line write-line |
| 2839 | |
| 2840 | For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the |
| 2841 | default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add: |
| 2842 | |
| 2843 | (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim)) |
| 2844 | |
| 2845 | to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in |
| 2846 | future. |
| 2847 | |
| 2848 | Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module |
| 2849 | can be used for similar functionality. |
| 2850 | |
| 2851 | ** New module (ice-9 rw) |
| 2852 | |
| 2853 | This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently |
| 2854 | it defines two procedures: |
| 2855 | |
| 2856 | *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]] |
| 2857 | |
| 2858 | Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR. |
| 2859 | A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called |
| 2860 | fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read |
| 2861 | large strings. |
| 2862 | |
| 2863 | *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]] |
| 2864 | |
| 2865 | Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor. |
| 2866 | A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called |
| 2867 | fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently |
| 2868 | write large strings. |
| 2869 | |
| 2870 | ** New module (ice-9 match) |
| 2871 | |
| 2872 | This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See |
| 2873 | ice-9/match.scm for brief description or |
| 2874 | |
| 2875 | http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html |
| 2876 | |
| 2877 | for complete documentation. |
| 2878 | |
| 2879 | ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input) |
| 2880 | |
| 2881 | This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an |
| 2882 | underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks. |
| 2883 | The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the |
| 2884 | caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input. |
| 2885 | |
| 2886 | This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline |
| 2887 | or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget. |
| 2888 | |
| 2889 | ** Documentation |
| 2890 | |
| 2891 | The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously |
| 2892 | distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core |
| 2893 | Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following |
| 2894 | manuals. |
| 2895 | |
| 2896 | - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction |
| 2897 | to using Guile. |
| 2898 | |
| 2899 | - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to |
| 2900 | contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile. |
| 2901 | |
| 2902 | - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and |
| 2903 | reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented |
| 2904 | Programming System. |
| 2905 | |
| 2906 | - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme |
| 2907 | (r5rs.texi). |
| 2908 | |
| 2909 | See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details. |
| 2910 | |
| 2911 | ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now. |
| 2912 | |
| 2913 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 2914 | |
| 2915 | ** New command line option `--use-srfi' |
| 2916 | |
| 2917 | Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be |
| 2918 | available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable |
| 2919 | Scheme programs easier. |
| 2920 | |
| 2921 | The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers, |
| 2922 | each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter |
| 2923 | before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally, |
| 2924 | the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by |
| 2925 | `cond-expand' when using this option. |
| 2926 | |
| 2927 | Example: |
| 2928 | $ guile --use-srfi=8,13 |
| 2929 | guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2)) |
| 2930 | 3 |
| 2931 | guile> (string-pad "bla" 20) |
| 2932 | " bla" |
| 2933 | |
| 2934 | ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module. |
| 2935 | |
| 2936 | Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the |
| 2937 | `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module. |
| 2938 | Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by |
| 2939 | default. |
| 2940 | |
| 2941 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 2942 | |
| 2943 | ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters. |
| 2944 | |
| 2945 | The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?', |
| 2946 | `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?' |
| 2947 | no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters. |
| 2948 | Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it |
| 2949 | was also ASCII, for example. |
| 2950 | |
| 2951 | ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed: |
| 2952 | |
| 2953 | tag - no replacement. |
| 2954 | fseek - replaced by seek. |
| 2955 | list* - replaced by cons*. |
| 2956 | |
| 2957 | ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments |
| 2958 | |
| 2959 | Example: |
| 2960 | |
| 2961 | (use-modules (ice-9 safe)) |
| 2962 | (define m (make-safe-module)) |
| 2963 | ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS |
| 2964 | (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3 |
| 2965 | (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load |
| 2966 | |
| 2967 | ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error. |
| 2968 | |
| 2969 | Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has |
| 2970 | been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way |
| 2971 | to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()". |
| 2972 | |
| 2973 | ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'. |
| 2974 | |
| 2975 | A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked |
| 2976 | at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a |
| 2977 | dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries |
| 2978 | from the issues related to the module system. |
| 2979 | |
| 2980 | *** New function: load-extension |
| 2981 | |
| 2982 | Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to |
| 2983 | |
| 2984 | (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib)) |
| 2985 | |
| 2986 | except when scm_register_extension has been called previously. |
| 2987 | Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of |
| 2988 | dynamic-link and dynamic-call. |
| 2989 | |
| 2990 | *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension |
| 2991 | |
| 2992 | This function registers a initialization function for use by |
| 2993 | `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to |
| 2994 | be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't |
| 2995 | support dynamic linking). |
| 2996 | |
| 2997 | ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated. |
| 2998 | |
| 2999 | Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared |
| 3000 | library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module |
| 3001 | `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named |
| 3002 | "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the |
| 3003 | load path of Guile. |
| 3004 | |
| 3005 | This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The |
| 3006 | shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a |
| 3007 | small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared |
| 3008 | library and initialize it explicitly. |
| 3009 | |
| 3010 | The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual |
| 3011 | places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar". |
| 3012 | |
| 3013 | For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm" |
| 3014 | |
| 3015 | (define-module (foo bar)) |
| 3016 | |
| 3017 | (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init") |
| 3018 | |
| 3019 | ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER |
| 3020 | |
| 3021 | `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments. |
| 3022 | The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either |
| 3023 | |
| 3024 | (scheme-report-environment 5) |
| 3025 | (null-environment 5) |
| 3026 | (interaction-environment) |
| 3027 | |
| 3028 | or |
| 3029 | |
| 3030 | any module. |
| 3031 | |
| 3032 | ** The module system has been made more disciplined. |
| 3033 | |
| 3034 | The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around |
| 3035 | the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is |
| 3036 | evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which |
| 3037 | is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'. |
| 3038 | |
| 3039 | A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly |
| 3040 | useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is |
| 3041 | designated as the current module and have this change persist from one |
| 3042 | call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example |
| 3043 | where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new |
| 3044 | function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and |
| 3045 | that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this |
| 3046 | function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc |
| 3047 | when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from |
| 3048 | one eval to the next. |
| 3049 | |
| 3050 | Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at |
| 3051 | the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module. |
| 3052 | Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case', |
| 3053 | etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these |
| 3054 | subforms are at the top-level as well. |
| 3055 | |
| 3056 | To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module', |
| 3057 | `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only |
| 3058 | work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and |
| 3059 | `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They |
| 3060 | behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are |
| 3061 | used in a lexical environment. |
| 3062 | |
| 3063 | Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported |
| 3064 | from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will |
| 3065 | cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually |
| 3066 | want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of |
| 3067 | `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when |
| 3068 | rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly. |
| 3069 | |
| 3070 | ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings |
| 3071 | |
| 3072 | Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in |
| 3073 | the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to |
| 3074 | values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an |
| 3075 | as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two |
| 3076 | new facilities: selection and renaming. |
| 3077 | |
| 3078 | You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be |
| 3079 | visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This |
| 3080 | clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example: |
| 3081 | |
| 3082 | ;; import all bindings no questions asked |
| 3083 | (use-modules (ice-9 common-list)) |
| 3084 | |
| 3085 | ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them; |
| 3086 | ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n |
| 3087 | (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list) |
| 3088 | :select (every some |
| 3089 | (remove-if . zonk-y) |
| 3090 | (remove-if-not . zonk-n)))) |
| 3091 | |
| 3092 | You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the |
| 3093 | `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and |
| 3094 | returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix, |
| 3095 | we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For |
| 3096 | example: |
| 3097 | |
| 3098 | ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically, |
| 3099 | ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:"; |
| 3100 | ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n |
| 3101 | (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list) |
| 3102 | :select (every some |
| 3103 | (remove-if . zonk-y) |
| 3104 | (remove-if-not . zonk-n)) |
| 3105 | :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:))) |
| 3106 | |
| 3107 | ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically, |
| 3108 | ;; and all four by upcasing. |
| 3109 | ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N |
| 3110 | (define (upcase-symbol sym) |
| 3111 | (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym)))) |
| 3112 | |
| 3113 | (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list) |
| 3114 | :select (every some |
| 3115 | (remove-if . zonk-y) |
| 3116 | (remove-if-not . zonk-n)) |
| 3117 | :renamer upcase-symbol)) |
| 3118 | |
| 3119 | Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming. |
| 3120 | Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are |
| 3121 | available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'. |
| 3122 | |
| 3123 | See manual for more info. |
| 3124 | |
| 3125 | ** The semantics of guardians have changed. |
| 3126 | |
| 3127 | The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion |
| 3128 | was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to |
| 3129 | make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful. |
| 3130 | |
| 3131 | *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive. |
| 3132 | |
| 3133 | It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned |
| 3134 | from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to |
| 3135 | return a "contained" object before its "containing" object. |
| 3136 | |
| 3137 | One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting |
| 3138 | from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that |
| 3139 | indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do |
| 3140 | so accidentally, you'll get a warning. |
| 3141 | |
| 3142 | *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing. |
| 3143 | |
| 3144 | If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a |
| 3145 | greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian. |
| 3146 | |
| 3147 | Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive". |
| 3148 | You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object |
| 3149 | more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in |
| 3150 | sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be |
| 3151 | returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded |
| 3152 | and/or alive. |
| 3153 | |
| 3154 | Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more |
| 3155 | optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an |
| 3156 | attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily |
| 3157 | guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter |
| 3158 | is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was |
| 3159 | successful and #f if it wasn't. |
| 3160 | |
| 3161 | Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation |
| 3162 | on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'. |
| 3163 | Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if |
| 3164 | the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the |
| 3165 | objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect. |
| 3166 | |
| 3167 | Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian |
| 3168 | objects are usually permanent. |
| 3169 | |
| 3170 | ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept |
| 3171 | any number of arguments, as required by R5RS. |
| 3172 | |
| 3173 | ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning' |
| 3174 | |
| 3175 | This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are |
| 3176 | controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README. |
| 3177 | |
| 3178 | (define (id x) |
| 3179 | (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.") |
| 3180 | (identity x)) |
| 3181 | |
| 3182 | guile> (id 1) |
| 3183 | ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead. |
| 3184 | 1 |
| 3185 | guile> (id 1) |
| 3186 | 1 |
| 3187 | |
| 3188 | ** New syntax `begin-deprecated' |
| 3189 | |
| 3190 | When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure |
| 3191 | option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to |
| 3192 | `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates |
| 3193 | to `#f', ignoring the body forms. |
| 3194 | |
| 3195 | ** New function `make-object-property' |
| 3196 | |
| 3197 | This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used |
| 3198 | to attach a property to objects. When calling P as |
| 3199 | |
| 3200 | (set! (P obj) val) |
| 3201 | |
| 3202 | where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such |
| 3203 | a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as |
| 3204 | |
| 3205 | (P obj) |
| 3206 | |
| 3207 | This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and |
| 3208 | source properties eventually. |
| 3209 | |
| 3210 | ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'. |
| 3211 | |
| 3212 | Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional, |
| 3213 | #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just |
| 3214 | :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active. |
| 3215 | |
| 3216 | The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It |
| 3217 | will be removed in the next release. |
| 3218 | |
| 3219 | ** New define-module option: pure |
| 3220 | |
| 3221 | Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root |
| 3222 | module. |
| 3223 | |
| 3224 | Example: |
| 3225 | |
| 3226 | (define-module (totally-empty-module) |
| 3227 | :pure) |
| 3228 | |
| 3229 | ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ... |
| 3230 | |
| 3231 | Export names NAME1 ... |
| 3232 | |
| 3233 | This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from |
| 3234 | a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'. |
| 3235 | |
| 3236 | Example: |
| 3237 | |
| 3238 | (define-module (foo) |
| 3239 | :pure |
| 3240 | :use-module (ice-9 r5rs) |
| 3241 | :export (bar)) |
| 3242 | |
| 3243 | ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point! |
| 3244 | |
| 3245 | (define (bar) |
| 3246 | ...) |
| 3247 | |
| 3248 | ** New function: object->string OBJ |
| 3249 | |
| 3250 | Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object. |
| 3251 | |
| 3252 | ** New function: port? X |
| 3253 | |
| 3254 | Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to |
| 3255 | `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'. |
| 3256 | |
| 3257 | ** New function: file-port? |
| 3258 | |
| 3259 | Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file. |
| 3260 | |
| 3261 | ** New function: port-for-each proc |
| 3262 | |
| 3263 | Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return |
| 3264 | value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once |
| 3265 | to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is |
| 3266 | invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running |
| 3267 | have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned. |
| 3268 | |
| 3269 | ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd |
| 3270 | |
| 3271 | A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file |
| 3272 | descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the |
| 3273 | previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers. |
| 3274 | Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made |
| 3275 | to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is |
| 3276 | unspecified. |
| 3277 | |
| 3278 | ** New function: close-fdes fd |
| 3279 | |
| 3280 | A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file |
| 3281 | descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note |
| 3282 | close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be |
| 3283 | closed even if a port is using it. The return value is |
| 3284 | unspecified. |
| 3285 | |
| 3286 | ** New function: crypt password salt |
| 3287 | |
| 3288 | Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption |
| 3289 | algorithm. |
| 3290 | |
| 3291 | ** New function: chroot path |
| 3292 | |
| 3293 | Change the root directory of the running process to `path'. |
| 3294 | |
| 3295 | ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid |
| 3296 | |
| 3297 | Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user |
| 3298 | id, respectively. |
| 3299 | |
| 3300 | ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio |
| 3301 | |
| 3302 | Get or set the priority of the running process. |
| 3303 | |
| 3304 | ** New function: getpass prompt |
| 3305 | |
| 3306 | Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and |
| 3307 | disabling echoing. |
| 3308 | |
| 3309 | ** New function: flock file operation |
| 3310 | |
| 3311 | Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'. |
| 3312 | |
| 3313 | ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname |
| 3314 | |
| 3315 | Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running |
| 3316 | on. |
| 3317 | |
| 3318 | ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl |
| 3319 | |
| 3320 | mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a |
| 3321 | new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL |
| 3322 | is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must |
| 3323 | end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name |
| 3324 | of the temporary file. |
| 3325 | |
| 3326 | ** New function: open-input-string string |
| 3327 | |
| 3328 | Return an input string port which delivers the characters from |
| 3329 | `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and |
| 3330 | `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6. |
| 3331 | |
| 3332 | ** New function: open-output-string |
| 3333 | |
| 3334 | Return an output string port which collects all data written to it. |
| 3335 | The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'. |
| 3336 | |
| 3337 | ** New function: get-output-string |
| 3338 | |
| 3339 | Return the contents of an output string port. |
| 3340 | |
| 3341 | ** New function: identity |
| 3342 | |
| 3343 | Return the argument. |
| 3344 | |
| 3345 | ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses |
| 3346 | are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering. |
| 3347 | |
| 3348 | ** New function: inet-pton family address |
| 3349 | |
| 3350 | Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that |
| 3351 | unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with |
| 3352 | normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'. |
| 3353 | e.g., |
| 3354 | |
| 3355 | (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433 |
| 3356 | (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1 |
| 3357 | |
| 3358 | ** New function: inet-ntop family address |
| 3359 | |
| 3360 | Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that |
| 3361 | unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with |
| 3362 | normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'. |
| 3363 | e.g., |
| 3364 | |
| 3365 | (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1" |
| 3366 | (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) => |
| 3367 | ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff |
| 3368 | |
| 3369 | ** Deprecated: id |
| 3370 | |
| 3371 | Use `identity' instead. |
| 3372 | |
| 3373 | ** Deprecated: -1+ |
| 3374 | |
| 3375 | Use `1-' instead. |
| 3376 | |
| 3377 | ** Deprecated: return-it |
| 3378 | |
| 3379 | Do without it. |
| 3380 | |
| 3381 | ** Deprecated: string-character-length |
| 3382 | |
| 3383 | Use `string-length' instead. |
| 3384 | |
| 3385 | ** Deprecated: flags |
| 3386 | |
| 3387 | Use `logior' instead. |
| 3388 | |
| 3389 | ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except. |
| 3390 | |
| 3391 | This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork, |
| 3392 | but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers. |
| 3393 | port-for-each is more flexible. |
| 3394 | |
| 3395 | ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in |
| 3396 | the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the |
| 3397 | current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process. |
| 3398 | |
| 3399 | ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings |
| 3400 | |
| 3401 | There is no such concept as a weak binding any more. |
| 3402 | |
| 3403 | ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors |
| 3404 | |
| 3405 | ** define-method: New syntax mandatory. |
| 3406 | |
| 3407 | The new method syntax is now mandatory: |
| 3408 | |
| 3409 | (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...) |
| 3410 | (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...) |
| 3411 | |
| 3412 | ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE) |
| 3413 | REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME |
| 3414 | |
| 3415 | If you have old code using the old syntax, import |
| 3416 | (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in: |
| 3417 | |
| 3418 | (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops)) |
| 3419 | |
| 3420 | ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable |
| 3421 | Removed function: builtin-bindings |
| 3422 | |
| 3423 | There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables. |
| 3424 | Use module system operations for all variables. |
| 3425 | |
| 3426 | ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return. |
| 3427 | |
| 3428 | That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not |
| 3429 | return. |
| 3430 | |
| 3431 | ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long) |
| 3432 | |
| 3433 | This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test. |
| 3434 | The following bugs have been fixed: |
| 3435 | |
| 3436 | *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks |
| 3437 | if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the |
| 3438 | option arg. |
| 3439 | |
| 3440 | *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description |
| 3441 | does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to |
| 3442 | be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation. |
| 3443 | |
| 3444 | *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative. |
| 3445 | It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation. |
| 3446 | |
| 3447 | *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when |
| 3448 | `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough |
| 3449 | args". |
| 3450 | |
| 3451 | *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg. |
| 3452 | The expansion used to be like so: |
| 3453 | |
| 3454 | ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz") |
| 3455 | |
| 3456 | Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so: |
| 3457 | |
| 3458 | ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz") |
| 3459 | |
| 3460 | This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their |
| 3461 | constituent characters are not potential single-char options. |
| 3462 | |
| 3463 | ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*' |
| 3464 | |
| 3465 | The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure |
| 3466 | property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that |
| 3467 | `arity' can give more detailed information than before: |
| 3468 | |
| 3469 | Before: |
| 3470 | |
| 3471 | guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs)) |
| 3472 | guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a) |
| 3473 | guile> (arity foo) |
| 3474 | 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'. |
| 3475 | |
| 3476 | After: |
| 3477 | |
| 3478 | guile> (arity foo) |
| 3479 | 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'. |
| 3480 | guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a) |
| 3481 | guile> (arity bar) |
| 3482 | 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c' |
| 3483 | and `d', other keywords allowed. |
| 3484 | guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a) |
| 3485 | guile> (arity baz) |
| 3486 | 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c', |
| 3487 | the rest in `r'. |
| 3488 | |
| 3489 | * Changes to the C interface |
| 3490 | |
| 3491 | ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*. |
| 3492 | |
| 3493 | This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending |
| 3494 | with "_t". What a concept. |
| 3495 | |
| 3496 | The old names are still available with status `deprecated'. |
| 3497 | |
| 3498 | ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type. |
| 3499 | |
| 3500 | ** Deprecated features have been removed. |
| 3501 | |
| 3502 | *** Macros removed |
| 3503 | |
| 3504 | SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR |
| 3505 | SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP |
| 3506 | |
| 3507 | *** C Functions removed |
| 3508 | |
| 3509 | scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo |
| 3510 | scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek. |
| 3511 | gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook. |
| 3512 | gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm. |
| 3513 | scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real. |
| 3514 | scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex. |
| 3515 | scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star. |
| 3516 | |
| 3517 | ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr |
| 3518 | |
| 3519 | Use scm_mem2string instead. |
| 3520 | |
| 3521 | ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring |
| 3522 | |
| 3523 | Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile. |
| 3524 | |
| 3525 | Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing |
| 3526 | internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy. |
| 3527 | |
| 3528 | ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p |
| 3529 | |
| 3530 | The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of |
| 3531 | Guile. |
| 3532 | |
| 3533 | ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member |
| 3534 | |
| 3535 | Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member. |
| 3536 | |
| 3537 | ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3 |
| 3538 | |
| 3539 | Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly |
| 3540 | Evaluation" in the manual. |
| 3541 | |
| 3542 | ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3 |
| 3543 | |
| 3544 | Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of |
| 3545 | further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual. |
| 3546 | |
| 3547 | ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5 |
| 3548 | |
| 3549 | Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List |
| 3550 | Constructors" in the manual. |
| 3551 | |
| 3552 | ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n. |
| 3553 | |
| 3554 | ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4, |
| 3555 | SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9. |
| 3556 | |
| 3557 | Use functions scm_list_N instead. |
| 3558 | |
| 3559 | ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size) |
| 3560 | |
| 3561 | Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port. |
| 3562 | Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less |
| 3563 | than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file. |
| 3564 | |
| 3565 | Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts! |
| 3566 | |
| 3567 | ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size) |
| 3568 | |
| 3569 | Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM |
| 3570 | port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc |
| 3571 | write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no |
| 3572 | return value. |
| 3573 | |
| 3574 | Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts! |
| 3575 | |
| 3576 | ** New function: scm_init_guile () |
| 3577 | |
| 3578 | In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally |
| 3579 | after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho. |
| 3580 | |
| 3581 | ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol |
| 3582 | |
| 3583 | The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated |
| 3584 | field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string. |
| 3585 | The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and |
| 3586 | creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area. |
| 3587 | |
| 3588 | ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property |
| 3589 | scm_primitive_property_ref |
| 3590 | scm_primitive_property_set_x |
| 3591 | scm_primitive_property_del_x |
| 3592 | |
| 3593 | These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties. |
| 3594 | See libguile/properties.c for their documentation. |
| 3595 | |
| 3596 | ** New function: scm_done_free (long size) |
| 3597 | |
| 3598 | This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the |
| 3599 | amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved |
| 3600 | calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat |
| 3601 | unintuitive (and is still available, of course). |
| 3602 | |
| 3603 | ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list) |
| 3604 | |
| 3605 | This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case |
| 3606 | that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a |
| 3607 | replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its |
| 3608 | list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's |
| 3609 | behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for |
| 3610 | the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which |
| 3611 | is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour. |
| 3612 | |
| 3613 | ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2, |
| 3614 | scm_remember_upto_here |
| 3615 | |
| 3616 | These functions replace the function scm_remember. |
| 3617 | |
| 3618 | ** Deprecated function: scm_remember |
| 3619 | |
| 3620 | Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1, |
| 3621 | scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead. |
| 3622 | |
| 3623 | ** New function: scm_allocate_string |
| 3624 | |
| 3625 | This function replaces the function scm_makstr. |
| 3626 | |
| 3627 | ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr |
| 3628 | |
| 3629 | Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead. |
| 3630 | |
| 3631 | ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced. |
| 3632 | |
| 3633 | Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to |
| 3634 | now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was |
| 3635 | running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage |
| 3636 | collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that |
| 3637 | may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use |
| 3638 | of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway. |
| 3639 | |
| 3640 | ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH |
| 3641 | |
| 3642 | Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX. |
| 3643 | |
| 3644 | ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH, |
| 3645 | SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, |
| 3646 | SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH. |
| 3647 | |
| 3648 | Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH. |
| 3649 | |
| 3650 | ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH, |
| 3651 | SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, |
| 3652 | SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH |
| 3653 | |
| 3654 | Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH |
| 3655 | |
| 3656 | ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE, |
| 3657 | SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM, |
| 3658 | SCM_ARRAY_MEM |
| 3659 | |
| 3660 | Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or |
| 3661 | SCM_VELTS. |
| 3662 | |
| 3663 | ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, |
| 3664 | SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, |
| 3665 | SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE |
| 3666 | |
| 3667 | Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS. |
| 3668 | |
| 3669 | ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P |
| 3670 | |
| 3671 | ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X |
| 3672 | |
| 3673 | Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR. |
| 3674 | |
| 3675 | ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN |
| 3676 | |
| 3677 | For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN. |
| 3678 | |
| 3679 | ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, |
| 3680 | SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, |
| 3681 | SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, |
| 3682 | SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, |
| 3683 | SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, |
| 3684 | SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, |
| 3685 | SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, |
| 3686 | SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, |
| 3687 | SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS, |
| 3688 | SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP, |
| 3689 | SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC, |
| 3690 | SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG, |
| 3691 | SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY, |
| 3692 | SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP, |
| 3693 | SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR |
| 3694 | |
| 3695 | Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE. |
| 3696 | Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC. |
| 3697 | Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP. |
| 3698 | Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR. |
| 3699 | Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP |
| 3700 | Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS. |
| 3701 | Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH. |
| 3702 | Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING. |
| 3703 | Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR. |
| 3704 | Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP. |
| 3705 | Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP. |
| 3706 | Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING. |
| 3707 | Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS. |
| 3708 | Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS. |
| 3709 | Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH. |
| 3710 | Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS. |
| 3711 | Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX. |
| 3712 | Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP. |
| 3713 | Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK. |
| 3714 | Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK. |
| 3715 | Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16. |
| 3716 | Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR. |
| 3717 | Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP. |
| 3718 | Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA. |
| 3719 | Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA. |
| 3720 | Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG. |
| 3721 | Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA. |
| 3722 | Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP. |
| 3723 | Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP. |
| 3724 | |
| 3725 | ** Removed function: scm_struct_init |
| 3726 | |
| 3727 | ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim |
| 3728 | |
| 3729 | ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by |
| 3730 | scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface. |
| 3731 | |
| 3732 | ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors |
| 3733 | |
| 3734 | Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead. |
| 3735 | |
| 3736 | ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash |
| 3737 | |
| 3738 | Use scm_string_hash instead. |
| 3739 | |
| 3740 | ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x |
| 3741 | |
| 3742 | Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents. |
| 3743 | |
| 3744 | ** scm_gensym has changed prototype |
| 3745 | |
| 3746 | scm_gensym now only takes one argument. |
| 3747 | |
| 3748 | ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols, |
| 3749 | scm_tc7_lvector |
| 3750 | |
| 3751 | There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol. |
| 3752 | The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway. |
| 3753 | |
| 3754 | ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe. |
| 3755 | |
| 3756 | Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead. |
| 3757 | |
| 3758 | ** New function scm_set_smob_apply. |
| 3759 | |
| 3760 | This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type. |
| 3761 | |
| 3762 | ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj |
| 3763 | |
| 3764 | Use scm_object_to_string instead. |
| 3765 | |
| 3766 | ** Deprecated function: scm_wta |
| 3767 | |
| 3768 | Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function |
| 3769 | instead. |
| 3770 | |
| 3771 | ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated. |
| 3772 | |
| 3773 | Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead. |
| 3774 | |
| 3775 | ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated. |
| 3776 | |
| 3777 | The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been |
| 3778 | a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change. |
| 3779 | |
| 3780 | *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern, |
| 3781 | scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0. |
| 3782 | |
| 3783 | Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate. |
| 3784 | |
| 3785 | *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup, |
| 3786 | scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup, |
| 3787 | scm_module_define, scm_define. |
| 3788 | |
| 3789 | These functions work with variables instead of with vcells. |
| 3790 | |
| 3791 | ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's. |
| 3792 | |
| 3793 | The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or |
| 3794 | gsubr) object and adding it to the current module. |
| 3795 | |
| 3796 | These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr, |
| 3797 | scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic, |
| 3798 | scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic, |
| 3799 | scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic. |
| 3800 | |
| 3801 | ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt, |
| 3802 | scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr, |
| 3803 | scm_make_gsubr_with_generic. |
| 3804 | |
| 3805 | Use the new ones from above instead. |
| 3806 | |
| 3807 | ** C interface to the module system has changed. |
| 3808 | |
| 3809 | While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system |
| 3810 | operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has |
| 3811 | been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system. |
| 3812 | |
| 3813 | *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module, |
| 3814 | scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module. |
| 3815 | |
| 3816 | They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module |
| 3817 | takes a function that is called a context where the new module is |
| 3818 | current. |
| 3819 | |
| 3820 | *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module, |
| 3821 | scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module. |
| 3822 | |
| 3823 | Use the new functions instead. |
| 3824 | |
| 3825 | ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes |
| 3826 | scm_c_with_fluids. |
| 3827 | |
| 3828 | scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function. |
| 3829 | |
| 3830 | ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid. |
| 3831 | |
| 3832 | Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead |
| 3833 | of lists of same. |
| 3834 | |
| 3835 | ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long. |
| 3836 | |
| 3837 | They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global |
| 3838 | namespace. |
| 3839 | |
| 3840 | ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet |
| 3841 | |
| 3842 | It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is |
| 3843 | oddly named. |
| 3844 | |
| 3845 | ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port, |
| 3846 | scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport, |
| 3847 | scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim. |
| 3848 | |
| 3849 | Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end. |
| 3850 | |
| 3851 | ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig, |
| 3852 | scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl |
| 3853 | |
| 3854 | With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still |
| 3855 | available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not |
| 3856 | intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with |
| 3857 | bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can |
| 3858 | be bignums). |
| 3859 | |
| 3860 | ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong |
| 3861 | |
| 3862 | The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact |
| 3863 | argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with |
| 3864 | R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an |
| 3865 | inexact for an exact. |
| 3866 | |
| 3867 | ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num, |
| 3868 | scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short, |
| 3869 | scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff, |
| 3870 | scm_num2size. |
| 3871 | |
| 3872 | These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral |
| 3873 | types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't |
| 3874 | accept an inexact argument. |
| 3875 | |
| 3876 | ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num, |
| 3877 | scm_num2float, scm_num2double. |
| 3878 | |
| 3879 | These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and |
| 3880 | Scheme numbers. |
| 3881 | |
| 3882 | ** New number validation macros: |
| 3883 | SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF] |
| 3884 | |
| 3885 | See above. |
| 3886 | |
| 3887 | ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object |
| 3888 | |
| 3889 | These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and |
| 3890 | scm_unprotect_object. |
| 3891 | |
| 3892 | ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object |
| 3893 | |
| 3894 | ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots |
| 3895 | |
| 3896 | These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that |
| 3897 | hold SCM values. |
| 3898 | |
| 3899 | ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook. |
| 3900 | |
| 3901 | Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general |
| 3902 | usefulness. |
| 3903 | |
| 3904 | \f |
| 3905 | Changes since Guile 1.3.4: |
| 3906 | |
| 3907 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 3908 | |
| 3909 | ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh. |
| 3910 | |
| 3911 | We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source |
| 3912 | repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained |
| 3913 | from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed: |
| 3914 | - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and |
| 3915 | libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to |
| 3916 | obtain these programs. |
| 3917 | - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script |
| 3918 | `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree. |
| 3919 | |
| 3920 | The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by |
| 3921 | humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and |
| 3922 | Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be |
| 3923 | derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would |
| 3924 | make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS. |
| 3925 | |
| 3926 | However, this approach means that minor differences between |
| 3927 | developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team. |
| 3928 | So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and |
| 3929 | added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them |
| 3930 | appropriately. |
| 3931 | |
| 3932 | |
| 3933 | ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain |
| 3934 | features: |
| 3935 | |
| 3936 | --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support |
| 3937 | --disable-posix omit posix interfaces |
| 3938 | --disable-networking omit networking interfaces |
| 3939 | --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces |
| 3940 | |
| 3941 | These are likely to become separate modules some day. |
| 3942 | |
| 3943 | ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist |
| 3944 | |
| 3945 | This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers |
| 3946 | an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'. |
| 3947 | |
| 3948 | Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable |
| 3949 | the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use: |
| 3950 | |
| 3951 | (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist |
| 3952 | (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking |
| 3953 | |
| 3954 | Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and |
| 3955 | a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can |
| 3956 | slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to |
| 3957 | turn on this extra processing only when necessary. |
| 3958 | |
| 3959 | ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc |
| 3960 | |
| 3961 | Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free. |
| 3962 | |
| 3963 | Checks that |
| 3964 | |
| 3965 | 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc |
| 3966 | 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by |
| 3967 | scm_must_malloc |
| 3968 | 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string |
| 3969 | |
| 3970 | But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of |
| 3971 | each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks. |
| 3972 | |
| 3973 | A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive |
| 3974 | `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the |
| 3975 | number of objects of that kind. |
| 3976 | |
| 3977 | ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory |
| 3978 | |
| 3979 | Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and |
| 3980 | system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via |
| 3981 | their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name |
| 3982 | space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given |
| 3983 | -I options for the root build and root source directory. |
| 3984 | |
| 3985 | ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed. |
| 3986 | |
| 3987 | ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed. |
| 3988 | |
| 3989 | ** New module (ice-9 documentation) |
| 3990 | |
| 3991 | Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with |
| 3992 | objects. |
| 3993 | |
| 3994 | ** New module (ice-9 time) |
| 3995 | |
| 3996 | Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form. |
| 3997 | |
| 3998 | ** New module (ice-9 history) |
| 3999 | |
| 4000 | Loading this module enables value history in the repl. |
| 4001 | |
| 4002 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 4003 | |
| 4004 | ** New command line option --debug |
| 4005 | |
| 4006 | Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled. |
| 4007 | |
| 4008 | This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts. |
| 4009 | |
| 4010 | ** New help facility |
| 4011 | |
| 4012 | Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol) |
| 4013 | (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string) |
| 4014 | (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object |
| 4015 | (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR |
| 4016 | (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)' |
| 4017 | (help) gives this text |
| 4018 | |
| 4019 | `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while |
| 4020 | `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module. |
| 4021 | |
| 4022 | Examples: (help help) |
| 4023 | (help cons) |
| 4024 | (help "output-string") |
| 4025 | |
| 4026 | ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names |
| 4027 | |
| 4028 | ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package. |
| 4029 | |
| 4030 | The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been |
| 4031 | replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy |
| 4032 | details for us. |
| 4033 | |
| 4034 | The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool |
| 4035 | library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link' |
| 4036 | will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via |
| 4037 | libltdl. |
| 4038 | |
| 4039 | The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really |
| 4040 | portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to |
| 4041 | use absolute filenames when possible. |
| 4042 | |
| 4043 | If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will |
| 4044 | try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is |
| 4045 | to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and |
| 4046 | extensions. |
| 4047 | |
| 4048 | ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads |
| 4049 | |
| 4050 | Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with |
| 4051 | Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the |
| 4052 | thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses |
| 4053 | the pthreads to allocate the stack. |
| 4054 | |
| 4055 | ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir' |
| 4056 | |
| 4057 | ** Positions of erring expression in scripts |
| 4058 | |
| 4059 | With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile |
| 4060 | scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been |
| 4061 | documented before the 1.3.4 release.) |
| 4062 | |
| 4063 | You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of |
| 4064 | source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at |
| 4065 | the top of your script (or in your "site" file): |
| 4066 | |
| 4067 | (read-enable 'positions) |
| 4068 | (debug-enable 'debug) |
| 4069 | |
| 4070 | ** Backtraces in scripts |
| 4071 | |
| 4072 | It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts. |
| 4073 | |
| 4074 | Put |
| 4075 | |
| 4076 | (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace) |
| 4077 | |
| 4078 | at the top of the script. |
| 4079 | |
| 4080 | (The first options enables the debugging evaluator. |
| 4081 | The second enables backtraces.) |
| 4082 | |
| 4083 | ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C |
| 4084 | |
| 4085 | The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this |
| 4086 | was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code |
| 4087 | substantially faster than before. |
| 4088 | |
| 4089 | ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces |
| 4090 | an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error. |
| 4091 | |
| 4092 | ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a |
| 4093 | tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered. |
| 4094 | |
| 4095 | ** New hook: after-gc-hook |
| 4096 | |
| 4097 | after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at |
| 4098 | the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same |
| 4099 | point during evaluation as signal handlers.) |
| 4100 | |
| 4101 | Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging |
| 4102 | purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined |
| 4103 | when this hook is run in the future. |
| 4104 | |
| 4105 | C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook, |
| 4106 | scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook. |
| 4107 | |
| 4108 | ** Improvements to garbage collector |
| 4109 | |
| 4110 | Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and |
| 4111 | determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems |
| 4112 | in the old GC. |
| 4113 | |
| 4114 | 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells |
| 4115 | (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating |
| 4116 | more and more memory for certain programs.) |
| 4117 | |
| 4118 | 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the |
| 4119 | Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this. |
| 4120 | |
| 4121 | 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells |
| 4122 | were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC. |
| 4123 | |
| 4124 | 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a |
| 4125 | row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be |
| 4126 | in order not to need further allocation.) |
| 4127 | |
| 4128 | All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more |
| 4129 | efficient. |
| 4130 | |
| 4131 | The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can |
| 4132 | allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single |
| 4133 | function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can |
| 4134 | then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization. |
| 4135 | |
| 4136 | ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters |
| 4137 | |
| 4138 | GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size |
| 4139 | (default = 2097000) |
| 4140 | |
| 4141 | Allocation of 2-word cell heaps: |
| 4142 | |
| 4143 | GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes |
| 4144 | (default = 360000) |
| 4145 | |
| 4146 | GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each |
| 4147 | GC in percent of total heap size |
| 4148 | (default = 40) |
| 4149 | |
| 4150 | Allocation of 4-word cell heaps |
| 4151 | (used for real numbers and misc other objects): |
| 4152 | |
| 4153 | GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 |
| 4154 | |
| 4155 | (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under |
| 4156 | section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.) |
| 4157 | |
| 4158 | ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells |
| 4159 | |
| 4160 | This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated |
| 4161 | with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however. |
| 4162 | |
| 4163 | ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken |
| 4164 | |
| 4165 | *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS) |
| 4166 | don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in |
| 4167 | next release. |
| 4168 | |
| 4169 | *** Signals |
| 4170 | are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after |
| 4171 | I/O, and in scm_equalp. |
| 4172 | |
| 4173 | *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs. |
| 4174 | |
| 4175 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 4176 | |
| 4177 | ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS |
| 4178 | |
| 4179 | These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour. |
| 4180 | |
| 4181 | ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ... |
| 4182 | |
| 4183 | (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly |
| 4184 | extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format) |
| 4185 | |
| 4186 | (simple-format port message . args) |
| 4187 | Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'. |
| 4188 | MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed, |
| 4189 | the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS: |
| 4190 | ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'. |
| 4191 | If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port', |
| 4192 | if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text. |
| 4193 | Does not add a trailing newline." |
| 4194 | |
| 4195 | ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional. |
| 4196 | |
| 4197 | ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments, |
| 4198 | only characters, for compatibility with R5RS. |
| 4199 | |
| 4200 | ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT |
| 4201 | Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open. |
| 4202 | |
| 4203 | ** Deprecated: list* |
| 4204 | |
| 4205 | The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant) |
| 4206 | |
| 4207 | ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn |
| 4208 | |
| 4209 | Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list, |
| 4210 | returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))). |
| 4211 | |
| 4212 | Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument |
| 4213 | is returned as result. |
| 4214 | |
| 4215 | This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP. |
| 4216 | |
| 4217 | ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map! |
| 4218 | |
| 4219 | ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT |
| 4220 | |
| 4221 | Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The |
| 4222 | procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are |
| 4223 | faster. |
| 4224 | |
| 4225 | Exported by (ice-9 documentation). |
| 4226 | |
| 4227 | ** module-name now returns full names of modules |
| 4228 | |
| 4229 | Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for |
| 4230 | `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'. |
| 4231 | |
| 4232 | * Changes to the gh_ interface |
| 4233 | |
| 4234 | ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb |
| 4235 | |
| 4236 | Use gh_bool2scm instead. |
| 4237 | |
| 4238 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 4239 | |
| 4240 | ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings! |
| 4241 | |
| 4242 | Thanks to Greg Badros! |
| 4243 | |
| 4244 | ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC |
| 4245 | |
| 4246 | Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC |
| 4247 | macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new |
| 4248 | guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk). |
| 4249 | |
| 4250 | However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of |
| 4251 | guile. |
| 4252 | |
| 4253 | ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments |
| 4254 | |
| 4255 | SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve |
| 4256 | the readability of argument checking. |
| 4257 | |
| 4258 | ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents. |
| 4259 | |
| 4260 | ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK |
| 4261 | |
| 4262 | Compose/decompose an SCM value. |
| 4263 | |
| 4264 | The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a |
| 4265 | long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time |
| 4266 | options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when |
| 4267 | SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type |
| 4268 | should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when |
| 4269 | composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access |
| 4270 | individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value. |
| 4271 | |
| 4272 | E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression |
| 4273 | |
| 4274 | SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80) |
| 4275 | |
| 4276 | ** The name property of hooks is deprecated. |
| 4277 | Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated. |
| 4278 | |
| 4279 | You can emulate this feature by using object properties. |
| 4280 | |
| 4281 | ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP, |
| 4282 | SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP, |
| 4283 | SCM_NVECTORP |
| 4284 | |
| 4285 | These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile. |
| 4286 | |
| 4287 | ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated: |
| 4288 | scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL, |
| 4289 | SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG |
| 4290 | |
| 4291 | ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure |
| 4292 | must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile |
| 4293 | releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports. |
| 4294 | |
| 4295 | ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for |
| 4296 | resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the |
| 4297 | special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR) |
| 4298 | the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers, |
| 4299 | in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port |
| 4300 | type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the |
| 4301 | beginning of the ptob seek procedure: |
| 4302 | |
| 4303 | if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ) |
| 4304 | scm_end_input (object); |
| 4305 | else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE) |
| 4306 | ptob->flush (object); |
| 4307 | |
| 4308 | although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread |
| 4309 | chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics |
| 4310 | of the ptob. |
| 4311 | |
| 4312 | ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag |
| 4313 | |
| 4314 | These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version. |
| 4315 | |
| 4316 | ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile. |
| 4317 | Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be |
| 4318 | removed in a future version. |
| 4319 | |
| 4320 | ** The format of error message strings has changed |
| 4321 | |
| 4322 | The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the |
| 4323 | primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work. |
| 4324 | This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use |
| 4325 | ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before. |
| 4326 | |
| 4327 | During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there, |
| 4328 | you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile. |
| 4329 | |
| 4330 | There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use |
| 4331 | autoconf. Put |
| 4332 | |
| 4333 | AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format) |
| 4334 | |
| 4335 | in your configure.in. |
| 4336 | |
| 4337 | Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's |
| 4338 | preprocessor. |
| 4339 | |
| 4340 | In C: |
| 4341 | |
| 4342 | #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT |
| 4343 | #define FMT_S "~S" |
| 4344 | #else |
| 4345 | #define FMT_S "%S" |
| 4346 | #endif |
| 4347 | |
| 4348 | Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro: |
| 4349 | |
| 4350 | #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!" |
| 4351 | |
| 4352 | In Scheme: |
| 4353 | |
| 4354 | (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S")) |
| 4355 | (define make-message string-append) |
| 4356 | |
| 4357 | (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!")) |
| 4358 | |
| 4359 | Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c. |
| 4360 | |
| 4361 | In C: |
| 4362 | |
| 4363 | scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"), |
| 4364 | ...); |
| 4365 | |
| 4366 | In Scheme: |
| 4367 | |
| 4368 | (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!") |
| 4369 | ...) |
| 4370 | |
| 4371 | |
| 4372 | ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init |
| 4373 | |
| 4374 | Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and |
| 4375 | coop_condition_variable_init. They will change. |
| 4376 | |
| 4377 | Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead. |
| 4378 | |
| 4379 | ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME) |
| 4380 | `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on |
| 4381 | COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration |
| 4382 | of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME, |
| 4383 | the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait' |
| 4384 | returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'. |
| 4385 | |
| 4386 | The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same |
| 4387 | origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds |
| 4388 | to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970. |
| 4389 | |
| 4390 | ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND) |
| 4391 | `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting |
| 4392 | on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are |
| 4393 | waiting on COND. |
| 4394 | |
| 4395 | ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *)) |
| 4396 | `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in |
| 4397 | the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number |
| 4398 | of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated |
| 4399 | with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads. |
| 4400 | |
| 4401 | The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor |
| 4402 | function associated with the key. When a thread terminates, |
| 4403 | DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in |
| 4404 | that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted |
| 4405 | with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with |
| 4406 | `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are |
| 4407 | called at thread termination time is unspecified. |
| 4408 | |
| 4409 | Destructors are not yet implemented. |
| 4410 | |
| 4411 | ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER) |
| 4412 | `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the |
| 4413 | calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead. |
| 4414 | |
| 4415 | ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY) |
| 4416 | `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with |
| 4417 | KEY in the calling thread. |
| 4418 | |
| 4419 | ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY) |
| 4420 | `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check |
| 4421 | whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the |
| 4422 | currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function |
| 4423 | associated with the key. |
| 4424 | |
| 4425 | ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE) |
| 4426 | |
| 4427 | Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type |
| 4428 | TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().) |
| 4429 | |
| 4430 | ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP) |
| 4431 | |
| 4432 | Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP |
| 4433 | is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added |
| 4434 | multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa. |
| 4435 | |
| 4436 | ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA) |
| 4437 | |
| 4438 | Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A |
| 4439 | function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches. |
| 4440 | |
| 4441 | ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA) |
| 4442 | |
| 4443 | Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions. |
| 4444 | |
| 4445 | If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value |
| 4446 | returned is undefined. |
| 4447 | |
| 4448 | If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function |
| 4449 | returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of |
| 4450 | scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned. |
| 4451 | |
| 4452 | If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function |
| 4453 | returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns |
| 4454 | a non-NULL value, the last value is returned. |
| 4455 | |
| 4456 | ** New C level GC hooks |
| 4457 | |
| 4458 | Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector. |
| 4459 | |
| 4460 | scm_before_gc_c_hook |
| 4461 | scm_after_gc_c_hook |
| 4462 | |
| 4463 | are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is |
| 4464 | thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that |
| 4465 | scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.) |
| 4466 | |
| 4467 | scm_before_mark_c_hook |
| 4468 | scm_before_sweep_c_hook |
| 4469 | scm_after_sweep_c_hook |
| 4470 | |
| 4471 | are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of |
| 4472 | the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians |
| 4473 | modules. |
| 4474 | |
| 4475 | ** Way for application to customize GC parameters |
| 4476 | |
| 4477 | The application can set up other default values for the GC heap |
| 4478 | allocation parameters |
| 4479 | |
| 4480 | GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1, |
| 4481 | GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2, |
| 4482 | GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, |
| 4483 | |
| 4484 | by setting |
| 4485 | |
| 4486 | scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1, |
| 4487 | scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2, |
| 4488 | scm_default_max_segment_size |
| 4489 | |
| 4490 | respectively before callong scm_boot_guile. |
| 4491 | |
| 4492 | (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section |
| 4493 | "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.) |
| 4494 | |
| 4495 | ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest |
| 4496 | |
| 4497 | This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an |
| 4498 | object and count on the object being protected until |
| 4499 | scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times. |
| 4500 | |
| 4501 | The functions also have better time complexity. |
| 4502 | |
| 4503 | Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way |
| 4504 | that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a |
| 4505 | protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather |
| 4506 | than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they |
| 4507 | are no longer needed. |
| 4508 | |
| 4509 | ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc |
| 4510 | |
| 4511 | Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any |
| 4512 | more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further, |
| 4513 | the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real |
| 4514 | and scm_tc16_complex, respectively. |
| 4515 | |
| 4516 | ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns |
| 4517 | |
| 4518 | ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob |
| 4519 | |
| 4520 | ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release |
| 4521 | |
| 4522 | There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to |
| 4523 | deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current |
| 4524 | standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code |
| 4525 | until this issue has been settled. |
| 4526 | |
| 4527 | ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw |
| 4528 | |
| 4529 | ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword |
| 4530 | |
| 4531 | (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented |
| 4532 | until now.) |
| 4533 | |
| 4534 | ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized |
| 4535 | |
| 4536 | * Changes to system call interfaces: |
| 4537 | |
| 4538 | ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to |
| 4539 | provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file |
| 4540 | descriptors were checked. |
| 4541 | |
| 4542 | ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be |
| 4543 | atomically written to a pipe. |
| 4544 | |
| 4545 | ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is |
| 4546 | compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined. |
| 4547 | Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error |
| 4548 | exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may |
| 4549 | need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key |
| 4550 | 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's |
| 4551 | now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is |
| 4552 | available. |
| 4553 | |
| 4554 | ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct |
| 4555 | result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ |
| 4556 | is changed without calling tzset. |
| 4557 | |
| 4558 | * Changes to the networking interfaces: |
| 4559 | |
| 4560 | ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and |
| 4561 | long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not |
| 4562 | particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider: |
| 4563 | |
| 4564 | (define write-network-long |
| 4565 | (lambda (value port) |
| 4566 | (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0))) |
| 4567 | (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value)) |
| 4568 | (uniform-vector-write v port)))) |
| 4569 | |
| 4570 | (define read-network-long |
| 4571 | (lambda (port) |
| 4572 | (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0))) |
| 4573 | (uniform-vector-read! v port) |
| 4574 | (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0))))) |
| 4575 | |
| 4576 | ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error |
| 4577 | instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant. |
| 4578 | |
| 4579 | ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with |
| 4580 | specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate |
| 4581 | since errno will not have been set. The keys are: |
| 4582 | 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data. |
| 4583 | |
| 4584 | ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an |
| 4585 | optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database |
| 4586 | remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using |
| 4587 | gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously |
| 4588 | #t was always used. |
| 4589 | |
| 4590 | \f |
| 4591 | Changes since Guile 1.3.2: |
| 4592 | |
| 4593 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 4594 | |
| 4595 | ** Debugger |
| 4596 | |
| 4597 | An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has |
| 4598 | been added. The debugger is still under development but is included |
| 4599 | in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful. |
| 4600 | |
| 4601 | Type |
| 4602 | |
| 4603 | (debug) |
| 4604 | |
| 4605 | after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger |
| 4606 | for a description of available commands. |
| 4607 | |
| 4608 | If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in |
| 4609 | anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the |
| 4610 | screen as is the case in gdb, you can put |
| 4611 | |
| 4612 | (debug-enable 'backwards) |
| 4613 | |
| 4614 | in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't |
| 4615 | use indentation to indicate stack level.) |
| 4616 | |
| 4617 | The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use. |
| 4618 | |
| 4619 | ** Further enhancements to backtraces |
| 4620 | |
| 4621 | There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width |
| 4622 | on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters |
| 4623 | ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for |
| 4624 | each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting |
| 4625 | within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by |
| 4626 | adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked |
| 4627 | with a `$'. |
| 4628 | |
| 4629 | ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started |
| 4630 | |
| 4631 | The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9 |
| 4632 | regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been |
| 4633 | started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been |
| 4634 | reduced to 30% of what it was previously. |
| 4635 | |
| 4636 | Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of |
| 4637 | the file and should not be affected by this change. |
| 4638 | |
| 4639 | ** Hooks are now represented as smobs |
| 4640 | |
| 4641 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 4642 | |
| 4643 | ** Readline support has changed again. |
| 4644 | |
| 4645 | The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline) |
| 4646 | instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code |
| 4647 | to activate readline is now |
| 4648 | |
| 4649 | (use-modules (ice-9 readline)) |
| 4650 | (activate-readline) |
| 4651 | |
| 4652 | This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt. |
| 4653 | |
| 4654 | To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only |
| 4655 | enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the |
| 4656 | default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding |
| 4657 | request: |
| 4658 | |
| 4659 | Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General |
| 4660 | Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without |
| 4661 | placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some |
| 4662 | people. |
| 4663 | |
| 4664 | However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public |
| 4665 | License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or |
| 4666 | dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL. |
| 4667 | Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile |
| 4668 | which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather |
| 4669 | non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms. |
| 4670 | |
| 4671 | So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for |
| 4672 | themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile. |
| 4673 | |
| 4674 | ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly. |
| 4675 | |
| 4676 | If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match |
| 4677 | object it receives is the same string passed to |
| 4678 | regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string. |
| 4679 | Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire |
| 4680 | string, not the suffix. |
| 4681 | |
| 4682 | If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen |
| 4683 | from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the |
| 4684 | same set of matches that list-matches does; see below. |
| 4685 | |
| 4686 | ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS] |
| 4687 | |
| 4688 | Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal |
| 4689 | match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order. |
| 4690 | list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no |
| 4691 | other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's |
| 4692 | position. |
| 4693 | |
| 4694 | If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec. |
| 4695 | |
| 4696 | ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS] |
| 4697 | |
| 4698 | For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object, |
| 4699 | and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return |
| 4700 | the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they |
| 4701 | appear from left to right. |
| 4702 | |
| 4703 | This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as |
| 4704 | list-matches. |
| 4705 | |
| 4706 | Thus, you could define list-matches like this: |
| 4707 | |
| 4708 | (define (list-matches regexp string . flags) |
| 4709 | (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags))) |
| 4710 | |
| 4711 | If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec. |
| 4712 | |
| 4713 | ** Hooks |
| 4714 | |
| 4715 | *** New function: hook? OBJ |
| 4716 | |
| 4717 | Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f. |
| 4718 | |
| 4719 | *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY] |
| 4720 | |
| 4721 | Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for |
| 4722 | ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the |
| 4723 | hook object is printed to ease debugging. |
| 4724 | |
| 4725 | *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK |
| 4726 | |
| 4727 | Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f. |
| 4728 | |
| 4729 | *** New function: hook->list HOOK |
| 4730 | |
| 4731 | Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is |
| 4732 | applied to HOOK. |
| 4733 | |
| 4734 | ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length. |
| 4735 | |
| 4736 | This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug |
| 4737 | fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're |
| 4738 | mentioning it here anyway. |
| 4739 | |
| 4740 | ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent |
| 4741 | |
| 4742 | Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an |
| 4743 | associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair |
| 4744 | (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now |
| 4745 | indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the |
| 4746 | user level. |
| 4747 | |
| 4748 | *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE |
| 4749 | |
| 4750 | Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE. |
| 4751 | |
| 4752 | *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT |
| 4753 | |
| 4754 | Return the print state associated with this port if it exists, |
| 4755 | otherwise return #f. |
| 4756 | |
| 4757 | *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT |
| 4758 | |
| 4759 | Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object |
| 4760 | returned by `opendir'. |
| 4761 | |
| 4762 | ** New function: using-readline? |
| 4763 | |
| 4764 | Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl. |
| 4765 | |
| 4766 | ** structs will be removed in 1.4 |
| 4767 | |
| 4768 | Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile |
| 4769 | and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type. |
| 4770 | |
| 4771 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 4772 | |
| 4773 | ** structs will be removed in 1.4 |
| 4774 | |
| 4775 | The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be |
| 4776 | replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use |
| 4777 | GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type. |
| 4778 | |
| 4779 | ** The internal representation of subr's has changed |
| 4780 | |
| 4781 | Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr |
| 4782 | now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table. |
| 4783 | |
| 4784 | *** New variable: scm_subr_table |
| 4785 | |
| 4786 | An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties |
| 4787 | and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and |
| 4788 | documentation slots are not yet used. |
| 4789 | |
| 4790 | ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function |
| 4791 | |
| 4792 | It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile |
| 4793 | primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on |
| 4794 | argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in |
| 4795 | normal evaluation. |
| 4796 | |
| 4797 | Example: |
| 4798 | |
| 4799 | (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2. |
| 4800 | (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>)) |
| 4801 | (string-append x y)) |
| 4802 | |
| 4803 | + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but |
| 4804 | can also be used for concatenating strings. |
| 4805 | |
| 4806 | Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to |
| 4807 | rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can |
| 4808 | be made in a clean way.] |
| 4809 | |
| 4810 | *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1 |
| 4811 | |
| 4812 | New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC) |
| 4813 | |
| 4814 | New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC) |
| 4815 | |
| 4816 | These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define |
| 4817 | a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below. |
| 4818 | |
| 4819 | [This is experimental code which may change soon.] |
| 4820 | |
| 4821 | *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error |
| 4822 | |
| 4823 | New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR) |
| 4824 | |
| 4825 | New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR) |
| 4826 | |
| 4827 | These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same |
| 4828 | behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive |
| 4829 | `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the |
| 4830 | generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling |
| 4831 | scm_wta. |
| 4832 | |
| 4833 | [This is experimental code which may change soon.] |
| 4834 | |
| 4835 | *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch |
| 4836 | |
| 4837 | New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR) |
| 4838 | |
| 4839 | New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR) |
| 4840 | |
| 4841 | These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to |
| 4842 | GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called. |
| 4843 | |
| 4844 | [This is experimental code which may change soon.] |
| 4845 | |
| 4846 | ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env) |
| 4847 | |
| 4848 | Evaluates the body of a special form. |
| 4849 | |
| 4850 | ** The internal representation of struct's has changed |
| 4851 | |
| 4852 | Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities |
| 4853 | and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with |
| 4854 | the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive |
| 4855 | generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function |
| 4856 | dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an |
| 4857 | expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified. |
| 4858 | |
| 4859 | This should not make any difference for most users. |
| 4860 | |
| 4861 | ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up. |
| 4862 | |
| 4863 | Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of |
| 4864 | these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured. |
| 4865 | |
| 4866 | *** New functions for applying generic functions |
| 4867 | |
| 4868 | New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS) |
| 4869 | New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC) |
| 4870 | New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1) |
| 4871 | New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2) |
| 4872 | New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3) |
| 4873 | |
| 4874 | ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook |
| 4875 | |
| 4876 | It is now replaced by: |
| 4877 | |
| 4878 | ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity) |
| 4879 | |
| 4880 | Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also |
| 4881 | binds a variable named NAME to it. |
| 4882 | |
| 4883 | This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code. |
| 4884 | |
| 4885 | Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. |
| 4886 | This might change when we get the new module system. |
| 4887 | |
| 4888 | [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.] |
| 4889 | |
| 4890 | |
| 4891 | \f |
| 4892 | Changes since Guile 1.3: |
| 4893 | |
| 4894 | * Changes to mailing lists |
| 4895 | |
| 4896 | ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com. |
| 4897 | |
| 4898 | See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile |
| 4899 | mailing lists. |
| 4900 | |
| 4901 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 4902 | |
| 4903 | ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default. |
| 4904 | |
| 4905 | Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we |
| 4906 | concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of |
| 4907 | Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered |
| 4908 | as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when |
| 4909 | you explicitly specify it. |
| 4910 | |
| 4911 | Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special |
| 4912 | exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's |
| 4913 | license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free |
| 4914 | programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a |
| 4915 | disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other |
| 4916 | languages. |
| 4917 | |
| 4918 | In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU |
| 4919 | General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not |
| 4920 | link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is |
| 4921 | distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL. |
| 4922 | |
| 4923 | Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that |
| 4924 | can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be |
| 4925 | explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these |
| 4926 | two packages. |
| 4927 | |
| 4928 | You can activate the readline support by issuing |
| 4929 | |
| 4930 | (use-modules (readline-activator)) |
| 4931 | (activate-readline) |
| 4932 | |
| 4933 | from your ".guile" file, for example. |
| 4934 | |
| 4935 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 4936 | |
| 4937 | ** All builtins now print as primitives. |
| 4938 | Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr |
| 4939 | types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>. |
| 4940 | Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>. |
| 4941 | |
| 4942 | ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible. |
| 4943 | gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear |
| 4944 | in backtraces. |
| 4945 | |
| 4946 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 4947 | |
| 4948 | ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into |
| 4949 | their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would |
| 4950 | incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking |
| 4951 | whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the |
| 4952 | correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't |
| 4953 | catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of |
| 4954 | the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of |
| 4955 | incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically: |
| 4956 | |
| 4957 | (let () |
| 4958 | (define a 1) |
| 4959 | (define (b) a) |
| 4960 | (define c (1+ (b))) |
| 4961 | (define d 3) |
| 4962 | |
| 4963 | (b)) |
| 4964 | |
| 4965 | => 2 |
| 4966 | |
| 4967 | The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the |
| 4968 | value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile |
| 4969 | so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that |
| 4970 | also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c' |
| 4971 | instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on |
| 4972 | this theme: |
| 4973 | |
| 4974 | (define (foo flag) |
| 4975 | (define a 1) |
| 4976 | (define (b flag) (if flag a 1)) |
| 4977 | (define c (1+ (b flag))) |
| 4978 | (define d 3) |
| 4979 | |
| 4980 | (b #t)) |
| 4981 | |
| 4982 | (foo #f) |
| 4983 | (foo #t) |
| 4984 | |
| 4985 | From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message |
| 4986 | for both examples. |
| 4987 | |
| 4988 | ** Hooks |
| 4989 | |
| 4990 | A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on |
| 4991 | particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for |
| 4992 | customization. |
| 4993 | |
| 4994 | A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window |
| 4995 | manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in |
| 4996 | before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can |
| 4997 | store functions in the hook using add-hook!. |
| 4998 | |
| 4999 | In Guile, hooks are first class objects. |
| 5000 | |
| 5001 | *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS] |
| 5002 | |
| 5003 | Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments. |
| 5004 | The default value for N_ARGS is 0. |
| 5005 | |
| 5006 | (See also scm_make_named_hook below.) |
| 5007 | |
| 5008 | *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P] |
| 5009 | |
| 5010 | Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK. |
| 5011 | If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead. |
| 5012 | |
| 5013 | PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the |
| 5014 | hook was created. |
| 5015 | |
| 5016 | If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first. |
| 5017 | |
| 5018 | *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC |
| 5019 | |
| 5020 | Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK. |
| 5021 | |
| 5022 | *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK |
| 5023 | |
| 5024 | Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK. |
| 5025 | |
| 5026 | *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ... |
| 5027 | |
| 5028 | Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... . |
| 5029 | The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given |
| 5030 | when the hook was created. |
| 5031 | |
| 5032 | ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments. |
| 5033 | The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global |
| 5034 | BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be |
| 5035 | linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the |
| 5036 | linked library can be used to resolve references from other |
| 5037 | dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked |
| 5038 | library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via |
| 5039 | `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode. |
| 5040 | Previously, the default has been non-global mode. |
| 5041 | |
| 5042 | The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support |
| 5043 | the dlopen family of functions. |
| 5044 | |
| 5045 | ** New function `provided?' |
| 5046 | |
| 5047 | - Function: provided? FEATURE |
| 5048 | Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of |
| 5049 | Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global |
| 5050 | variable `*features*' is a list of available features. |
| 5051 | |
| 5052 | ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect): |
| 5053 | |
| 5054 | *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression |
| 5055 | only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would |
| 5056 | match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour |
| 5057 | can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags' |
| 5058 | to 0. |
| 5059 | |
| 5060 | *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags' |
| 5061 | for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$' |
| 5062 | in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or |
| 5063 | end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'. |
| 5064 | |
| 5065 | *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable |
| 5066 | `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to |
| 5067 | `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously |
| 5068 | hard-coded. |
| 5069 | |
| 5070 | *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure: |
| 5071 | the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether |
| 5072 | end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied. |
| 5073 | If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an |
| 5074 | additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call |
| 5075 | but with the flag set. |
| 5076 | |
| 5077 | ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function. |
| 5078 | |
| 5079 | This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was |
| 5080 | borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile. |
| 5081 | |
| 5082 | - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS |
| 5083 | An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description |
| 5084 | according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L. |
| 5085 | Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the |
| 5086 | available Scheme format implementations. |
| 5087 | |
| 5088 | Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing |
| 5089 | according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is |
| 5090 | to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION |
| 5091 | is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call. |
| 5092 | NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the |
| 5093 | format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the |
| 5094 | output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the |
| 5095 | output is to the current error port if available by the |
| 5096 | implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and |
| 5097 | `#t' is returned. |
| 5098 | |
| 5099 | FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error |
| 5100 | format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or |
| 5101 | error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by |
| 5102 | the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a |
| 5103 | tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax |
| 5104 | please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test |
| 5105 | suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'. |
| 5106 | Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'. |
| 5107 | |
| 5108 | Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may |
| 5109 | be executed at a time. |
| 5110 | |
| 5111 | |
| 5112 | *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0) |
| 5113 | |
| 5114 | Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed |
| 5115 | description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the |
| 5116 | implemented directives see `formatst.scm'. |
| 5117 | |
| 5118 | This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:' |
| 5119 | and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma |
| 5120 | (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative), |
| 5121 | character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable |
| 5122 | parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and |
| 5123 | default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The |
| 5124 | general form of a directive is: |
| 5125 | |
| 5126 | DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER |
| 5127 | |
| 5128 | DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ] |
| 5129 | |
| 5130 | *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives |
| 5131 | |
| 5132 | Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the |
| 5133 | corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters |
| 5134 | represent control directive parameter descriptions. |
| 5135 | |
| 5136 | `~A' |
| 5137 | Any (print as `display' does). |
| 5138 | `~@A' |
| 5139 | left pad. |
| 5140 | |
| 5141 | `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA' |
| 5142 | full padding. |
| 5143 | |
| 5144 | `~S' |
| 5145 | S-expression (print as `write' does). |
| 5146 | `~@S' |
| 5147 | left pad. |
| 5148 | |
| 5149 | `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS' |
| 5150 | full padding. |
| 5151 | |
| 5152 | `~D' |
| 5153 | Decimal. |
| 5154 | `~@D' |
| 5155 | print number sign always. |
| 5156 | |
| 5157 | `~:D' |
| 5158 | print comma separated. |
| 5159 | |
| 5160 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD' |
| 5161 | padding. |
| 5162 | |
| 5163 | `~X' |
| 5164 | Hexadecimal. |
| 5165 | `~@X' |
| 5166 | print number sign always. |
| 5167 | |
| 5168 | `~:X' |
| 5169 | print comma separated. |
| 5170 | |
| 5171 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX' |
| 5172 | padding. |
| 5173 | |
| 5174 | `~O' |
| 5175 | Octal. |
| 5176 | `~@O' |
| 5177 | print number sign always. |
| 5178 | |
| 5179 | `~:O' |
| 5180 | print comma separated. |
| 5181 | |
| 5182 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO' |
| 5183 | padding. |
| 5184 | |
| 5185 | `~B' |
| 5186 | Binary. |
| 5187 | `~@B' |
| 5188 | print number sign always. |
| 5189 | |
| 5190 | `~:B' |
| 5191 | print comma separated. |
| 5192 | |
| 5193 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB' |
| 5194 | padding. |
| 5195 | |
| 5196 | `~NR' |
| 5197 | Radix N. |
| 5198 | `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR' |
| 5199 | padding. |
| 5200 | |
| 5201 | `~@R' |
| 5202 | print a number as a Roman numeral. |
| 5203 | |
| 5204 | `~:@R' |
| 5205 | print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral. |
| 5206 | |
| 5207 | `~:R' |
| 5208 | print a number as an ordinal English number. |
| 5209 | |
| 5210 | `~:@R' |
| 5211 | print a number as a cardinal English number. |
| 5212 | |
| 5213 | `~P' |
| 5214 | Plural. |
| 5215 | `~@P' |
| 5216 | prints `y' and `ies'. |
| 5217 | |
| 5218 | `~:P' |
| 5219 | as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.' |
| 5220 | |
| 5221 | `~:@P' |
| 5222 | as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.' |
| 5223 | |
| 5224 | `~C' |
| 5225 | Character. |
| 5226 | `~@C' |
| 5227 | prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\' |
| 5228 | prefixing). |
| 5229 | |
| 5230 | `~:C' |
| 5231 | prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03). |
| 5232 | |
| 5233 | `~F' |
| 5234 | Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN). |
| 5235 | `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF' |
| 5236 | `~@F' |
| 5237 | If the number is positive a plus sign is printed. |
| 5238 | |
| 5239 | `~E' |
| 5240 | Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE). |
| 5241 | `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE' |
| 5242 | `~@E' |
| 5243 | If the number is positive a plus sign is printed. |
| 5244 | |
| 5245 | `~G' |
| 5246 | General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or |
| 5247 | exponential). |
| 5248 | `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG' |
| 5249 | `~@G' |
| 5250 | If the number is positive a plus sign is printed. |
| 5251 | |
| 5252 | `~$' |
| 5253 | Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs |
| 5254 | separated). |
| 5255 | `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$' |
| 5256 | `~@$' |
| 5257 | If the number is positive a plus sign is printed. |
| 5258 | |
| 5259 | `~:@$' |
| 5260 | A sign is always printed and appears before the padding. |
| 5261 | |
| 5262 | `~:$' |
| 5263 | The sign appears before the padding. |
| 5264 | |
| 5265 | `~%' |
| 5266 | Newline. |
| 5267 | `~N%' |
| 5268 | print N newlines. |
| 5269 | |
| 5270 | `~&' |
| 5271 | print newline if not at the beginning of the output line. |
| 5272 | `~N&' |
| 5273 | prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines. |
| 5274 | |
| 5275 | `~|' |
| 5276 | Page Separator. |
| 5277 | `~N|' |
| 5278 | print N page separators. |
| 5279 | |
| 5280 | `~~' |
| 5281 | Tilde. |
| 5282 | `~N~' |
| 5283 | print N tildes. |
| 5284 | |
| 5285 | `~'<newline> |
| 5286 | Continuation Line. |
| 5287 | `~:'<newline> |
| 5288 | newline is ignored, white space left. |
| 5289 | |
| 5290 | `~@'<newline> |
| 5291 | newline is left, white space ignored. |
| 5292 | |
| 5293 | `~T' |
| 5294 | Tabulation. |
| 5295 | `~@T' |
| 5296 | relative tabulation. |
| 5297 | |
| 5298 | `~COLNUM,COLINCT' |
| 5299 | full tabulation. |
| 5300 | |
| 5301 | `~?' |
| 5302 | Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list). |
| 5303 | `~@?' |
| 5304 | extracts indirect arguments from format arguments. |
| 5305 | |
| 5306 | `~(STR~)' |
| 5307 | Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase'). |
| 5308 | `~:(STR~)' |
| 5309 | converts by `string-capitalize'. |
| 5310 | |
| 5311 | `~@(STR~)' |
| 5312 | converts by `string-capitalize-first'. |
| 5313 | |
| 5314 | `~:@(STR~)' |
| 5315 | converts by `string-upcase'. |
| 5316 | |
| 5317 | `~*' |
| 5318 | Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward). |
| 5319 | `~N*' |
| 5320 | jumps N arguments forward. |
| 5321 | |
| 5322 | `~:*' |
| 5323 | jumps 1 argument backward. |
| 5324 | |
| 5325 | `~N:*' |
| 5326 | jumps N arguments backward. |
| 5327 | |
| 5328 | `~@*' |
| 5329 | jumps to the 0th argument. |
| 5330 | |
| 5331 | `~N@*' |
| 5332 | jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0) |
| 5333 | |
| 5334 | `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]' |
| 5335 | Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional). |
| 5336 | `~N[' |
| 5337 | take argument from N. |
| 5338 | |
| 5339 | `~@[' |
| 5340 | true test conditional. |
| 5341 | |
| 5342 | `~:[' |
| 5343 | if-else-then conditional. |
| 5344 | |
| 5345 | `~;' |
| 5346 | clause separator. |
| 5347 | |
| 5348 | `~:;' |
| 5349 | default clause follows. |
| 5350 | |
| 5351 | `~{STR~}' |
| 5352 | Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)). |
| 5353 | `~N{' |
| 5354 | at most N iterations. |
| 5355 | |
| 5356 | `~:{' |
| 5357 | args from next arg (a list of lists). |
| 5358 | |
| 5359 | `~@{' |
| 5360 | args from the rest of arguments. |
| 5361 | |
| 5362 | `~:@{' |
| 5363 | args from the rest args (lists). |
| 5364 | |
| 5365 | `~^' |
| 5366 | Up and out. |
| 5367 | `~N^' |
| 5368 | aborts if N = 0 |
| 5369 | |
| 5370 | `~N,M^' |
| 5371 | aborts if N = M |
| 5372 | |
| 5373 | `~N,M,K^' |
| 5374 | aborts if N <= M <= K |
| 5375 | |
| 5376 | *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives |
| 5377 | |
| 5378 | `~:A' |
| 5379 | print `#f' as an empty list (see below). |
| 5380 | |
| 5381 | `~:S' |
| 5382 | print `#f' as an empty list (see below). |
| 5383 | |
| 5384 | `~<~>' |
| 5385 | Justification. |
| 5386 | |
| 5387 | `~:^' |
| 5388 | (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely) |
| 5389 | |
| 5390 | *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives |
| 5391 | |
| 5392 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD' |
| 5393 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX' |
| 5394 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO' |
| 5395 | `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB' |
| 5396 | `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR' |
| 5397 | COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma |
| 5398 | characters. |
| 5399 | |
| 5400 | `~I' |
| 5401 | print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for |
| 5402 | `~F'. |
| 5403 | |
| 5404 | `~Y' |
| 5405 | Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists. |
| 5406 | |
| 5407 | `~K' |
| 5408 | Same as `~?.' |
| 5409 | |
| 5410 | `~!' |
| 5411 | Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port. |
| 5412 | |
| 5413 | `~_' |
| 5414 | Print a `#\space' character |
| 5415 | `~N_' |
| 5416 | print N `#\space' characters. |
| 5417 | |
| 5418 | `~/' |
| 5419 | Print a `#\tab' character |
| 5420 | `~N/' |
| 5421 | print N `#\tab' characters. |
| 5422 | |
| 5423 | `~NC' |
| 5424 | Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments |
| 5425 | are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N |
| 5426 | must be a positive decimal number. |
| 5427 | |
| 5428 | `~:S' |
| 5429 | Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as |
| 5430 | `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always |
| 5431 | be processed by `read'. |
| 5432 | |
| 5433 | `~:A' |
| 5434 | Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as |
| 5435 | `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always |
| 5436 | be processed by `read'. |
| 5437 | |
| 5438 | `~Q' |
| 5439 | Prints information and a copyright notice on the format |
| 5440 | implementation. |
| 5441 | `~:Q' |
| 5442 | prints format version. |
| 5443 | |
| 5444 | `~F, ~E, ~G, ~$' |
| 5445 | may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string |
| 5446 | and format it accordingly. |
| 5447 | |
| 5448 | *** Configuration Variables |
| 5449 | |
| 5450 | The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the |
| 5451 | systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for |
| 5452 | the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically |
| 5453 | if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and |
| 5454 | complex numbers. |
| 5455 | |
| 5456 | format:symbol-case-conv |
| 5457 | Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the |
| 5458 | printed symbols is implementation dependent. |
| 5459 | `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either |
| 5460 | `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or |
| 5461 | `string-capitalize'. (default `#f') |
| 5462 | |
| 5463 | format:iobj-case-conv |
| 5464 | As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of |
| 5465 | implementation internal objects. (default `#f') |
| 5466 | |
| 5467 | format:expch |
| 5468 | The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing. |
| 5469 | (default `#\E') |
| 5470 | |
| 5471 | *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations |
| 5472 | |
| 5473 | SLIB format 2.x: |
| 5474 | See `format.doc'. |
| 5475 | |
| 5476 | SLIB format 1.4: |
| 5477 | Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S', |
| 5478 | `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style |
| 5479 | `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL |
| 5480 | `format' padding style. |
| 5481 | |
| 5482 | MIT C-Scheme 7.1: |
| 5483 | Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented |
| 5484 | (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline |
| 5485 | character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%', |
| 5486 | numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL |
| 5487 | sense). |
| 5488 | |
| 5489 | Elk 1.5/2.0: |
| 5490 | Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in |
| 5491 | uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no |
| 5492 | directive parameters or modifiers)). |
| 5493 | |
| 5494 | Scheme->C 01nov91: |
| 5495 | Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter: |
| 5496 | S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a |
| 5497 | formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C. |
| 5498 | (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive |
| 5499 | parameters or modifiers)). |
| 5500 | |
| 5501 | |
| 5502 | ** Changes to string-handling functions. |
| 5503 | |
| 5504 | These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above. |
| 5505 | |
| 5506 | *** New function: string-upcase STRING |
| 5507 | *** New function: string-downcase STRING |
| 5508 | |
| 5509 | These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and |
| 5510 | string-downcase! functions. |
| 5511 | |
| 5512 | *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING |
| 5513 | *** New function: string-capitalize STRING |
| 5514 | |
| 5515 | These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to |
| 5516 | upper case. Thus: |
| 5517 | |
| 5518 | (string-capitalize "howdy there") |
| 5519 | => "Howdy There" |
| 5520 | |
| 5521 | As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in |
| 5522 | place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument. |
| 5523 | |
| 5524 | *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING |
| 5525 | |
| 5526 | Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if |
| 5527 | the symbol had be read by `read'. |
| 5528 | |
| 5529 | Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case |
| 5530 | differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all |
| 5531 | symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol' |
| 5532 | function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile |
| 5533 | would if STRING were input. |
| 5534 | |
| 5535 | *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START |
| 5536 | |
| 5537 | Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END |
| 5538 | (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same |
| 5539 | string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all |
| 5540 | cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied |
| 5541 | simultanously. |
| 5542 | |
| 5543 | *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right! |
| 5544 | |
| 5545 | These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings; |
| 5546 | they are both synonyms for substring-move!. |
| 5547 | |
| 5548 | |
| 5549 | ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'. |
| 5550 | |
| 5551 | getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a |
| 5552 | manner consistent with other GNU programs. |
| 5553 | |
| 5554 | (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR) |
| 5555 | Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR. |
| 5556 | |
| 5557 | ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the |
| 5558 | name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments |
| 5559 | that were passed to the program on the command line. The |
| 5560 | `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form. |
| 5561 | |
| 5562 | GRAMMAR is a list of the form: |
| 5563 | ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...) |
| 5564 | |
| 5565 | Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a |
| 5566 | command-line option named `--OPTION'. |
| 5567 | Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs: |
| 5568 | |
| 5569 | (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character |
| 5570 | equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional |
| 5571 | Unix-style flags. |
| 5572 | (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required. |
| 5573 | getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS. |
| 5574 | (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if |
| 5575 | it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol |
| 5576 | `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or |
| 5577 | without a value. |
| 5578 | (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you |
| 5579 | specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt |
| 5580 | will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception |
| 5581 | if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which |
| 5582 | accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may |
| 5583 | need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR. |
| 5584 | |
| 5585 | The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each |
| 5586 | property may occur only once. By default, options do not have |
| 5587 | single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take |
| 5588 | values. |
| 5589 | |
| 5590 | In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual |
| 5591 | Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option |
| 5592 | accepts values, then it must be the last option in the |
| 5593 | combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using |
| 5594 | the following grammar: |
| 5595 | ((apples (single-char #\a)) |
| 5596 | (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t)) |
| 5597 | (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t))) |
| 5598 | the following argument lists would be acceptable: |
| 5599 | ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values |
| 5600 | for "blimps" and "catalexis") |
| 5601 | ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same) |
| 5602 | ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same) |
| 5603 | ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the |
| 5604 | last option in its combination) |
| 5605 | |
| 5606 | If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides |
| 5607 | whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If |
| 5608 | the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an |
| 5609 | option itself, then that string is the option's value. |
| 5610 | |
| 5611 | The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS, |
| 5612 | or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character. |
| 5613 | Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists |
| 5614 | are equivalent: |
| 5615 | ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear") |
| 5616 | ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear") |
| 5617 | ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn") |
| 5618 | |
| 5619 | If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there; |
| 5620 | subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if |
| 5621 | they resemble options. So, in the argument list: |
| 5622 | ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear") |
| 5623 | `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the |
| 5624 | value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp' |
| 5625 | option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as |
| 5626 | ordinary argument strings. |
| 5627 | |
| 5628 | The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an |
| 5629 | assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR |
| 5630 | --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value. |
| 5631 | Unused options do not appear in the alist. |
| 5632 | |
| 5633 | All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned |
| 5634 | as a list, associated with the empty list. |
| 5635 | |
| 5636 | `getopt-long' throws an exception if: |
| 5637 | - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS |
| 5638 | - a required option is omitted |
| 5639 | - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one |
| 5640 | - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can |
| 5641 | only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax) |
| 5642 | - an option predicate fails |
| 5643 | |
| 5644 | So, for example: |
| 5645 | |
| 5646 | (define grammar |
| 5647 | `((lockfile-dir (required? #t) |
| 5648 | (value #t) |
| 5649 | (single-char #\k) |
| 5650 | (predicate ,file-is-directory?)) |
| 5651 | (verbose (required? #f) |
| 5652 | (single-char #\v) |
| 5653 | (value #f)) |
| 5654 | (x-includes (single-char #\x)) |
| 5655 | (rnet-server (single-char #\y) |
| 5656 | (predicate ,string?)))) |
| 5657 | |
| 5658 | (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include" |
| 5659 | "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3") |
| 5660 | grammar) |
| 5661 | => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3") |
| 5662 | (rnet-server . "lamprod") |
| 5663 | (x-includes . "/usr/include") |
| 5664 | (lockfile-dir . "/tmp") |
| 5665 | (verbose . #t)) |
| 5666 | |
| 5667 | ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long). |
| 5668 | |
| 5669 | It will be removed in a few releases. |
| 5670 | |
| 5671 | ** New syntax: lambda* |
| 5672 | ** New syntax: define* |
| 5673 | ** New syntax: define*-public |
| 5674 | ** New syntax: defmacro* |
| 5675 | ** New syntax: defmacro*-public |
| 5676 | Guile now supports optional arguments. |
| 5677 | |
| 5678 | `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and |
| 5679 | `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that |
| 5680 | they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF |
| 5681 | syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping, |
| 5682 | and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning): |
| 5683 | |
| 5684 | ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]? |
| 5685 | [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]? |
| 5686 | [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier] |
| 5687 | |
| 5688 | ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression ) |
| 5689 | |
| 5690 | The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation |
| 5691 | and examples for `lambda*': |
| 5692 | |
| 5693 | lambda* args . body |
| 5694 | lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments |
| 5695 | |
| 5696 | lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These |
| 5697 | are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the |
| 5698 | paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example, |
| 5699 | (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '()) |
| 5700 | creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c |
| 5701 | and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted |
| 5702 | in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This |
| 5703 | can be checked with the bound? macro. |
| 5704 | |
| 5705 | lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure |
| 5706 | defined like this: |
| 5707 | (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '()) |
| 5708 | can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11) |
| 5709 | (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments |
| 5710 | are given as keywords are bound to values. |
| 5711 | |
| 5712 | Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values |
| 5713 | which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a |
| 5714 | two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in: |
| 5715 | (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz)) |
| 5716 | foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default |
| 5717 | value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73. |
| 5718 | Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed |
| 5719 | and until the procedure is called. |
| 5720 | |
| 5721 | lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords. |
| 5722 | |
| 5723 | lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a |
| 5724 | keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual |
| 5725 | passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys |
| 5726 | immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the |
| 5727 | previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now |
| 5728 | guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the |
| 5729 | last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example, |
| 5730 | ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails))) |
| 5731 | #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99) |
| 5732 | would result in (99 47) being displayed. |
| 5733 | |
| 5734 | #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest |
| 5735 | argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in |
| 5736 | all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL, |
| 5737 | MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other |
| 5738 | Lisp dialects. |
| 5739 | |
| 5740 | Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself. |
| 5741 | |
| 5742 | The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional', |
| 5743 | `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These |
| 5744 | are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but |
| 5745 | full documentation is still available in optargs.scm. |
| 5746 | |
| 5747 | ** New syntax: and-let* |
| 5748 | Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2. |
| 5749 | |
| 5750 | Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...) |
| 5751 | Each <clause> should have one of the following forms: |
| 5752 | (<variable> <expression>) |
| 5753 | (<expression>) |
| 5754 | <bound-variable> |
| 5755 | Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each |
| 5756 | <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a |
| 5757 | possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a |
| 5758 | lambda form. |
| 5759 | |
| 5760 | Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the |
| 5761 | <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from |
| 5762 | left to right. The value of the first <expression> or |
| 5763 | <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the |
| 5764 | remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated. |
| 5765 | The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and |
| 5766 | <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values. |
| 5767 | |
| 5768 | The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment |
| 5769 | binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>) |
| 5770 | clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings |
| 5771 | shadow earlier bindings. |
| 5772 | |
| 5773 | Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin. |
| 5774 | |
| 5775 | ** New sorting functions |
| 5776 | |
| 5777 | *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS? |
| 5778 | Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order |
| 5779 | according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y |
| 5780 | ...' for which `(less? y x)'). |
| 5781 | |
| 5782 | Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order |
| 5783 | pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a |
| 5784 | vector. |
| 5785 | |
| 5786 | *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS? |
| 5787 | LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists. |
| 5788 | Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2. |
| 5789 | |
| 5790 | Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal" |
| 5791 | in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2}, |
| 5792 | and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result. |
| 5793 | (Here "<" should read "comes before".) |
| 5794 | |
| 5795 | *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS? |
| 5796 | Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build |
| 5797 | the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new |
| 5798 | pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the |
| 5799 | result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of |
| 5800 | LIST2. |
| 5801 | |
| 5802 | *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS? |
| 5803 | Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence |
| 5804 | which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input. |
| 5805 | Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original |
| 5806 | sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its |
| 5807 | elements with the old one; no elements are copied. |
| 5808 | |
| 5809 | *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS |
| 5810 | Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is |
| 5811 | allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <)) |
| 5812 | |
| 5813 | *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS? |
| 5814 | Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are |
| 5815 | ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order |
| 5816 | in the result. |
| 5817 | |
| 5818 | *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS? |
| 5819 | Similar to `sort!' but stable. |
| 5820 | Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors. |
| 5821 | |
| 5822 | *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list! |
| 5823 | Added for compatibility with scsh. |
| 5824 | |
| 5825 | ** New built-in random number support |
| 5826 | |
| 5827 | *** New function: random N [STATE] |
| 5828 | Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the |
| 5829 | same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values |
| 5830 | returned have a uniform distribution. |
| 5831 | |
| 5832 | The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by |
| 5833 | `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value |
| 5834 | of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the |
| 5835 | state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side |
| 5836 | effect of the `random' operation. |
| 5837 | |
| 5838 | *** New variable: *random-state* |
| 5839 | Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the |
| 5840 | random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature |
| 5841 | of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be |
| 5842 | printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not |
| 5843 | function correctly as a random-number state object in another |
| 5844 | implementation. |
| 5845 | |
| 5846 | *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE] |
| 5847 | Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the |
| 5848 | variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'. |
| 5849 | If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a |
| 5850 | copy of `*random-state*' is returned. |
| 5851 | |
| 5852 | *** New function: seed->random-state SEED |
| 5853 | Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the |
| 5854 | variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'. |
| 5855 | SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and |
| 5856 | initialized using SEED. |
| 5857 | |
| 5858 | *** New function: random:uniform [STATE] |
| 5859 | Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the |
| 5860 | range between 0 and 1. |
| 5861 | |
| 5862 | *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE] |
| 5863 | Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose |
| 5864 | squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in |
| 5865 | space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are |
| 5866 | uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the |
| 5867 | squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector |
| 5868 | or a uniform vector of doubles. |
| 5869 | |
| 5870 | *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE] |
| 5871 | Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares |
| 5872 | is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of |
| 5873 | dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly |
| 5874 | distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either |
| 5875 | a vector or a uniform vector of doubles. |
| 5876 | |
| 5877 | *** New function: random:normal [STATE] |
| 5878 | Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and |
| 5879 | standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and |
| 5880 | standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'. |
| 5881 | |
| 5882 | *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE] |
| 5883 | Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and |
| 5884 | standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1). |
| 5885 | VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles. |
| 5886 | |
| 5887 | *** New function: random:exp STATE |
| 5888 | Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1. |
| 5889 | For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)). |
| 5890 | |
| 5891 | ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed. |
| 5892 | |
| 5893 | These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned |
| 5894 | long. |
| 5895 | |
| 5896 | These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed |
| 5897 | long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't |
| 5898 | overflow. |
| 5899 | |
| 5900 | ** New function: make-guardian |
| 5901 | This is an implementation of guardians as described in |
| 5902 | R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a |
| 5903 | Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on |
| 5904 | Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993 |
| 5905 | ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz |
| 5906 | |
| 5907 | ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1! |
| 5908 | These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only |
| 5909 | one object if at all. |
| 5910 | |
| 5911 | ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT |
| 5912 | Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that |
| 5913 | next read operation will work on the pushed back characters. |
| 5914 | |
| 5915 | ** unread-char can now be called multiple times |
| 5916 | If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be |
| 5917 | read again in last-in first-out order. |
| 5918 | |
| 5919 | ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now |
| 5920 | work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file. |
| 5921 | |
| 5922 | ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering. |
| 5923 | |
| 5924 | ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well |
| 5925 | as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current |
| 5926 | file position is used. |
| 5927 | |
| 5928 | ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE |
| 5929 | The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it |
| 5930 | works on string ports as well as random-access file ports. |
| 5931 | |
| 5932 | ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been |
| 5933 | redefined using seek. |
| 5934 | |
| 5935 | ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and |
| 5936 | size is not supplied. |
| 5937 | |
| 5938 | ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not |
| 5939 | line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port. |
| 5940 | |
| 5941 | ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but |
| 5942 | an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'. |
| 5943 | |
| 5944 | ** the freopen procedure has been removed. |
| 5945 | |
| 5946 | ** new procedure: drain-input PORT |
| 5947 | Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters) |
| 5948 | and returns the contents as a single string. |
| 5949 | |
| 5950 | ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ... |
| 5951 | Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the |
| 5952 | lists in serial order. |
| 5953 | |
| 5954 | ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to |
| 5955 | `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are |
| 5956 | now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5. |
| 5957 | |
| 5958 | ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ... |
| 5959 | Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body |
| 5960 | forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to |
| 5961 | `begin', `collect' allows an empty body. |
| 5962 | |
| 5963 | ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME |
| 5964 | Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success |
| 5965 | and #f if an error occured. |
| 5966 | |
| 5967 | ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments. |
| 5968 | |
| 5969 | These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified |
| 5970 | argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument, |
| 5971 | `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead |
| 5972 | of simply returning #f, the former behavior. |
| 5973 | |
| 5974 | ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported. |
| 5975 | |
| 5976 | Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a |
| 5977 | warning. |
| 5978 | |
| 5979 | ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable. |
| 5980 | |
| 5981 | Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find |
| 5982 | modules. |
| 5983 | |
| 5984 | * Changes to the gh_ interface |
| 5985 | |
| 5986 | ** gh_scm2doubles |
| 5987 | |
| 5988 | Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this |
| 5989 | pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour). |
| 5990 | |
| 5991 | ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars, |
| 5992 | gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats |
| 5993 | |
| 5994 | New functions. |
| 5995 | |
| 5996 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 5997 | |
| 5998 | ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args) |
| 5999 | |
| 6000 | Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also |
| 6001 | binds a variable named NAME to it. |
| 6002 | |
| 6003 | This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code. |
| 6004 | |
| 6005 | Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This |
| 6006 | might change when we get the new module system. |
| 6007 | |
| 6008 | ** The smob interface |
| 6009 | |
| 6010 | The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see |
| 6011 | data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi). |
| 6012 | |
| 6013 | *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *) |
| 6014 | |
| 6015 | >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<< |
| 6016 | |
| 6017 | It is replaced by: |
| 6018 | |
| 6019 | *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size) |
| 6020 | This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size |
| 6021 | SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in |
| 6022 | creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will |
| 6023 | be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing |
| 6024 | will be freed by the default free function. |
| 6025 | |
| 6026 | *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM)) |
| 6027 | This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type |
| 6028 | specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by |
| 6029 | `scm_make_smob_type'. |
| 6030 | |
| 6031 | *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM)) |
| 6032 | This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type |
| 6033 | specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by |
| 6034 | `scm_make_smob_type'. |
| 6035 | |
| 6036 | *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print) |
| 6037 | |
| 6038 | - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc, |
| 6039 | scm_sizet (*print) (SCM, |
| 6040 | SCM, |
| 6041 | scm_print_state *)) |
| 6042 | |
| 6043 | This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type |
| 6044 | specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by |
| 6045 | `scm_make_smob_type'. |
| 6046 | |
| 6047 | *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM)) |
| 6048 | This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the |
| 6049 | smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by |
| 6050 | `scm_make_smob_type'. |
| 6051 | |
| 6052 | *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data) |
| 6053 | Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and |
| 6054 | smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'. |
| 6055 | |
| 6056 | *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data) |
| 6057 | This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance |
| 6058 | of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that |
| 6059 | `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block. |
| 6060 | |
| 6061 | ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types |
| 6062 | (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on |
| 6063 | shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures. |
| 6064 | |
| 6065 | *** scm_newptob has been removed |
| 6066 | |
| 6067 | It is replaced by: |
| 6068 | |
| 6069 | *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush) |
| 6070 | |
| 6071 | - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name, |
| 6072 | int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port), |
| 6073 | void (*write_flush) (SCM port)); |
| 6074 | |
| 6075 | Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function |
| 6076 | setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port |
| 6077 | type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX). |
| 6078 | |
| 6079 | ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from |
| 6080 | a string port's buffer. |
| 6081 | |
| 6082 | ** Plug in interface for random number generators |
| 6083 | The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three |
| 6084 | function pointers which together define the current random number |
| 6085 | generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random |
| 6086 | number library functions. |
| 6087 | |
| 6088 | The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator |
| 6089 | of his own choice. |
| 6090 | |
| 6091 | *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size |
| 6092 | The size of the random state type used by the current RNG |
| 6093 | measured in chars. |
| 6094 | |
| 6095 | *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6096 | Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits. |
| 6097 | |
| 6098 | *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N) |
| 6099 | Seed random state STATE using string S of length N. |
| 6100 | |
| 6101 | *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6102 | Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy. |
| 6103 | |
| 6104 | ** Default RNG |
| 6105 | The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number |
| 6106 | generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of |
| 6107 | Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The |
| 6108 | Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo). |
| 6109 | |
| 6110 | It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and |
| 6111 | passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite |
| 6112 | (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits |
| 6113 | costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long |
| 6114 | longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost |
| 6115 | is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing |
| 6116 | scm_i_uniform32 in assembler. |
| 6117 | |
| 6118 | These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use |
| 6119 | by libguile and the application. |
| 6120 | |
| 6121 | *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE) |
| 6122 | Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits. |
| 6123 | Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin |
| 6124 | interface (see "Plug in interface" above). |
| 6125 | |
| 6126 | *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N) |
| 6127 | Initialize STATE using SEED of length N. |
| 6128 | |
| 6129 | *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE) |
| 6130 | Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used |
| 6131 | in the interfaces to other RNGs. |
| 6132 | |
| 6133 | ** Random number library functions |
| 6134 | These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface. |
| 6135 | It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so |
| 6136 | that only one random generator is used by all code in your program. |
| 6137 | |
| 6138 | The default random state is stored in: |
| 6139 | |
| 6140 | *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state |
| 6141 | Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is |
| 6142 | used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme |
| 6143 | level interface. |
| 6144 | |
| 6145 | Example: |
| 6146 | |
| 6147 | double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state))); |
| 6148 | |
| 6149 | *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void) |
| 6150 | This is a convenience function which returns the value of |
| 6151 | scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value |
| 6152 | isn't a random state. |
| 6153 | |
| 6154 | *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH) |
| 6155 | Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH. |
| 6156 | |
| 6157 | It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a |
| 6158 | program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random |
| 6159 | state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such |
| 6160 | guarantee for numbers generated from different random states. |
| 6161 | |
| 6162 | *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6163 | Return 32 random bits. |
| 6164 | |
| 6165 | *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6166 | Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution. |
| 6167 | |
| 6168 | *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6169 | Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution. |
| 6170 | |
| 6171 | *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE) |
| 6172 | Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution. |
| 6173 | |
| 6174 | *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M) |
| 6175 | Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution. |
| 6176 | |
| 6177 | *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M) |
| 6178 | Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution. |
| 6179 | M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM. |
| 6180 | |
| 6181 | |
| 6182 | \f |
| 6183 | Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998): |
| 6184 | |
| 6185 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 6186 | |
| 6187 | ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH. |
| 6188 | To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after |
| 6189 | themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some |
| 6190 | other convention. |
| 6191 | |
| 6192 | For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, |
| 6193 | giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the |
| 6194 | latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all. |
| 6195 | |
| 6196 | ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed. |
| 6197 | They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code |
| 6198 | which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten, |
| 6199 | since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see |
| 6200 | below. |
| 6201 | |
| 6202 | ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These |
| 6203 | files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage |
| 6204 | non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code. |
| 6205 | |
| 6206 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 6207 | |
| 6208 | ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode": |
| 6209 | |
| 6210 | *** Function: batch-mode? |
| 6211 | |
| 6212 | Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch |
| 6213 | mode. |
| 6214 | |
| 6215 | *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG |
| 6216 | |
| 6217 | If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f' |
| 6218 | case has not been implemented. |
| 6219 | |
| 6220 | ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively. |
| 6221 | To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed. |
| 6222 | The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include |
| 6223 | support for it. |
| 6224 | |
| 6225 | The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU |
| 6226 | mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu". |
| 6227 | |
| 6228 | ** the-last-stack is now a fluid. |
| 6229 | |
| 6230 | * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs |
| 6231 | |
| 6232 | ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile. |
| 6233 | |
| 6234 | Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which |
| 6235 | can provide information about how to compile and link programs that |
| 6236 | use Guile. |
| 6237 | |
| 6238 | *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile. |
| 6239 | You should include this command's output on the command line you use |
| 6240 | to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's |
| 6241 | usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers. |
| 6242 | |
| 6243 | |
| 6244 | *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile. |
| 6245 | |
| 6246 | This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you |
| 6247 | must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library. |
| 6248 | The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile |
| 6249 | library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker |
| 6250 | find those libraries. |
| 6251 | |
| 6252 | For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo' |
| 6253 | from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile: |
| 6254 | |
| 6255 | foo: ${FOO_OBJECTS} |
| 6256 | ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo |
| 6257 | |
| 6258 | Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect |
| 6259 | which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system. |
| 6260 | It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which |
| 6261 | libraries the installed Guile library requires. |
| 6262 | |
| 6263 | This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to |
| 6264 | `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with |
| 6265 | the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called |
| 6266 | `gtk-config'. |
| 6267 | |
| 6268 | |
| 6269 | ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile. |
| 6270 | |
| 6271 | If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program, |
| 6272 | you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config' |
| 6273 | (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your |
| 6274 | Makefiles. |
| 6275 | |
| 6276 | The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the |
| 6277 | `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and |
| 6278 | libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for |
| 6279 | substitution, as by AC_SUBST. |
| 6280 | |
| 6281 | GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build |
| 6282 | code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a |
| 6283 | -I flag. |
| 6284 | |
| 6285 | GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a |
| 6286 | program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile |
| 6287 | library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like |
| 6288 | -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the |
| 6289 | compiler where to find the libraries. |
| 6290 | |
| 6291 | GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level |
| 6292 | directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your |
| 6293 | package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file. |
| 6294 | |
| 6295 | If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake, |
| 6296 | to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process |
| 6297 | installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is |
| 6298 | use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal'; |
| 6299 | this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4 |
| 6300 | file. |
| 6301 | |
| 6302 | |
| 6303 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 6304 | |
| 6305 | ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide |
| 6306 | ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to |
| 6307 | internationalization support. |
| 6308 | |
| 6309 | ** New function: readline [PROMPT] |
| 6310 | Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it, |
| 6311 | prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like |
| 6312 | editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and |
| 6313 | works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals. |
| 6314 | |
| 6315 | READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when |
| 6316 | it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call |
| 6317 | READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to |
| 6318 | the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is |
| 6319 | because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width. |
| 6320 | |
| 6321 | For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline |
| 6322 | library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is |
| 6323 | available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from |
| 6324 | any GNU mirror site. |
| 6325 | |
| 6326 | See also ADD-HISTORY function. |
| 6327 | |
| 6328 | ** New function: add-history STRING |
| 6329 | Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE |
| 6330 | command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must |
| 6331 | call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user. |
| 6332 | |
| 6333 | ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed. |
| 6334 | |
| 6335 | This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line, |
| 6336 | for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of |
| 6337 | scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with |
| 6338 | #\newline. |
| 6339 | |
| 6340 | (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text |
| 6341 | from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a |
| 6342 | terminal, providing full editing capabilities.) |
| 6343 | |
| 6344 | ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments. |
| 6345 | |
| 6346 | This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one |
| 6347 | function: |
| 6348 | |
| 6349 | Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS |
| 6350 | Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option |
| 6351 | descriptions. |
| 6352 | |
| 6353 | Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if |
| 6354 | it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like |
| 6355 | `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the |
| 6356 | returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same |
| 6357 | name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces |
| 6358 | an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string. |
| 6359 | |
| 6360 | As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose |
| 6361 | car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list |
| 6362 | containing all the items in the argument list that are not options |
| 6363 | of the form mentioned above. |
| 6364 | |
| 6365 | The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument |
| 6366 | list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are |
| 6367 | returned in the special `rest' list. |
| 6368 | |
| 6369 | This function does not parse normal single-character switches. |
| 6370 | You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself. |
| 6371 | |
| 6372 | ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed. |
| 6373 | |
| 6374 | Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...). |
| 6375 | |
| 6376 | Instead of #short(...), write #h(...). |
| 6377 | |
| 6378 | This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors |
| 6379 | and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and, |
| 6380 | more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to |
| 6381 | use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the |
| 6382 | conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other |
| 6383 | uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader, |
| 6384 | both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to |
| 6385 | change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.) |
| 6386 | |
| 6387 | |
| 6388 | ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions. |
| 6389 | |
| 6390 | *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...) |
| 6391 | |
| 6392 | Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and |
| 6393 | the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the |
| 6394 | following symbols: |
| 6395 | |
| 6396 | value --- Show the value of each matching variable. |
| 6397 | shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules. |
| 6398 | full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'. |
| 6399 | |
| 6400 | For example: |
| 6401 | |
| 6402 | guile> (apropos "trace" 'full) |
| 6403 | debug: trace #<procedure trace args> |
| 6404 | debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args> |
| 6405 | the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>> |
| 6406 | the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook () |
| 6407 | the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace> |
| 6408 | the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook () |
| 6409 | the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f |
| 6410 | guile> |
| 6411 | |
| 6412 | ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros. |
| 6413 | |
| 6414 | Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose |
| 6415 | top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object |
| 6416 | specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation. |
| 6417 | |
| 6418 | *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures. |
| 6419 | |
| 6420 | *** New function: (macro? OBJ) |
| 6421 | True iff OBJ is a macro object. |
| 6422 | |
| 6423 | *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ) |
| 6424 | Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive |
| 6425 | macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code. |
| 6426 | |
| 6427 | Why do we have this function? |
| 6428 | - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?, |
| 6429 | - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is |
| 6430 | primitive, and display it differently, and |
| 6431 | - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish |
| 6432 | builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be |
| 6433 | compiled. |
| 6434 | |
| 6435 | *** New function: (macro-type OBJ) |
| 6436 | Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return |
| 6437 | values are: |
| 6438 | |
| 6439 | The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax. |
| 6440 | The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro. |
| 6441 | The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro. |
| 6442 | The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object. |
| 6443 | |
| 6444 | *** New function: (macro-name MACRO) |
| 6445 | Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by |
| 6446 | procedure-name. |
| 6447 | |
| 6448 | *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO) |
| 6449 | Return the transformer procedure for MACRO. |
| 6450 | |
| 6451 | *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER) |
| 6452 | |
| 6453 | Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each |
| 6454 | MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules' |
| 6455 | form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current |
| 6456 | top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the |
| 6457 | resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the |
| 6458 | module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module |
| 6459 | is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile |
| 6460 | interpreter. |
| 6461 | |
| 6462 | *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead. |
| 6463 | |
| 6464 | ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user |
| 6465 | written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers). |
| 6466 | |
| 6467 | The problem is that these user written routines must have access to |
| 6468 | the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like |
| 6469 | detection of circular references. These print-states have to be |
| 6470 | passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to |
| 6471 | properly continue the print chain. |
| 6472 | |
| 6473 | We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it |
| 6474 | explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead, |
| 6475 | we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines |
| 6476 | accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take |
| 6477 | a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the |
| 6478 | port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of |
| 6479 | circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a |
| 6480 | print-state, it is simply ignored. |
| 6481 | |
| 6482 | User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their |
| 6483 | `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT |
| 6484 | argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably |
| 6485 | safest to not check for these pairs. |
| 6486 | |
| 6487 | However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a |
| 6488 | different port, for example to get a intermediate string |
| 6489 | representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and |
| 6490 | then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function |
| 6491 | |
| 6492 | inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT |
| 6493 | |
| 6494 | for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but |
| 6495 | inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT. |
| 6496 | |
| 6497 | ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user |
| 6498 | |
| 6499 | ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer |
| 6500 | |
| 6501 | ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable |
| 6502 | (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables). |
| 6503 | This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable. |
| 6504 | |
| 6505 | ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs. |
| 6506 | That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints |
| 6507 | itself does not lead to infinite recursion. |
| 6508 | |
| 6509 | ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read |
| 6510 | "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with |
| 6511 | the following functions and macros: |
| 6512 | |
| 6513 | Function: make-fluid |
| 6514 | |
| 6515 | Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or |
| 6516 | some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather |
| 6517 | ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that |
| 6518 | are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you |
| 6519 | like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'. |
| 6520 | |
| 6521 | Function: fluid? OBJ |
| 6522 | |
| 6523 | Test whether OBJ is a fluid. |
| 6524 | |
| 6525 | Function: fluid-ref FLUID |
| 6526 | Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL |
| 6527 | |
| 6528 | Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible |
| 6529 | within the current dynamic root (that includes threads). |
| 6530 | |
| 6531 | Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK |
| 6532 | |
| 6533 | FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of |
| 6534 | values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are |
| 6535 | installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are |
| 6536 | saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK |
| 6537 | or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of |
| 6538 | this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is |
| 6539 | modified by `with-fluids*'. |
| 6540 | |
| 6541 | Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ... |
| 6542 | |
| 6543 | The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks |
| 6544 | just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember, |
| 6545 | fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID |
| 6546 | should evaluate to a fluid. |
| 6547 | |
| 6548 | ** Changes to system call interfaces: |
| 6549 | |
| 6550 | *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a |
| 6551 | boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port |
| 6552 | was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is |
| 6553 | also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an |
| 6554 | error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.) |
| 6555 | |
| 6556 | *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a |
| 6557 | file descriptor. |
| 6558 | |
| 6559 | *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional. |
| 6560 | |
| 6561 | *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port. |
| 6562 | |
| 6563 | *** the argument to stat can now be a port. |
| 6564 | |
| 6565 | *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh |
| 6566 | interfaces): |
| 6567 | |
| 6568 | *** procedure: close PORT/FD |
| 6569 | Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also |
| 6570 | works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file |
| 6571 | descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved |
| 6572 | to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set |
| 6573 | to zero. |
| 6574 | |
| 6575 | *** procedure: port->fdes PORT |
| 6576 | Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side |
| 6577 | effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented. |
| 6578 | |
| 6579 | *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES |
| 6580 | Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying |
| 6581 | file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts. |
| 6582 | |
| 6583 | *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES |
| 6584 | Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying |
| 6585 | file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count. |
| 6586 | Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1. |
| 6587 | |
| 6588 | *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES |
| 6589 | Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying |
| 6590 | file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count. |
| 6591 | Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1. |
| 6592 | |
| 6593 | The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD |
| 6594 | (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be |
| 6595 | duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The |
| 6596 | type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used. |
| 6597 | |
| 6598 | All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that |
| 6599 | any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have |
| 6600 | their revealed counts set to zero. |
| 6601 | |
| 6602 | *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD] |
| 6603 | Returns an integer file descriptor. |
| 6604 | |
| 6605 | *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD] |
| 6606 | Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor. |
| 6607 | |
| 6608 | *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD] |
| 6609 | Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor. |
| 6610 | |
| 6611 | *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD] |
| 6612 | Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the |
| 6613 | supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor. |
| 6614 | |
| 6615 | *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD] |
| 6616 | Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a |
| 6617 | mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.). |
| 6618 | |
| 6619 | *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE |
| 6620 | Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the |
| 6621 | default environment inherited by child processes. |
| 6622 | |
| 6623 | If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment. |
| 6624 | Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment, |
| 6625 | replacing any existing string with name matching NAME. |
| 6626 | |
| 6627 | The return value is unspecified. |
| 6628 | |
| 6629 | *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE |
| 6630 | Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ |
| 6631 | can be a string containing a file name or an integer file |
| 6632 | descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying |
| 6633 | system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'. |
| 6634 | |
| 6635 | The return value is unspecified. |
| 6636 | |
| 6637 | *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE] |
| 6638 | Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be: |
| 6639 | `_IONBF' |
| 6640 | non-buffered |
| 6641 | |
| 6642 | `_IOLBF' |
| 6643 | line buffered |
| 6644 | |
| 6645 | `_IOFBF' |
| 6646 | block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes. |
| 6647 | However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made |
| 6648 | non-buffered. |
| 6649 | |
| 6650 | This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with |
| 6651 | the port. |
| 6652 | |
| 6653 | Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer |
| 6654 | size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a |
| 6655 | mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port. |
| 6656 | |
| 6657 | *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD |
| 6658 | Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor |
| 6659 | to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the |
| 6660 | underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is |
| 6661 | unspecified. |
| 6662 | |
| 6663 | *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES] |
| 6664 | Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port. |
| 6665 | |
| 6666 | *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ... |
| 6667 | Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is |
| 6668 | specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by |
| 6669 | the `environ' procedure. |
| 6670 | |
| 6671 | This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system |
| 6672 | call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling |
| 6673 | interface. |
| 6674 | |
| 6675 | *** procedure: strerror ERRNO |
| 6676 | Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer. |
| 6677 | |
| 6678 | *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS] |
| 6679 | Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack. |
| 6680 | This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status |
| 6681 | is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero. |
| 6682 | |
| 6683 | *** procedure: times |
| 6684 | Returns an object with information about real and processor time. |
| 6685 | The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and |
| 6686 | return a selected component: |
| 6687 | |
| 6688 | `tms:clock' |
| 6689 | The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an |
| 6690 | arbitrary base. |
| 6691 | |
| 6692 | `tms:utime' |
| 6693 | The CPU time units used by the calling process. |
| 6694 | |
| 6695 | `tms:stime' |
| 6696 | The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the |
| 6697 | calling process. |
| 6698 | |
| 6699 | `tms:cutime' |
| 6700 | The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the |
| 6701 | calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using |
| 6702 | `waitpid'). |
| 6703 | |
| 6704 | `tms:cstime' |
| 6705 | Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of |
| 6706 | terminated child processes. |
| 6707 | |
| 6708 | ** Removed: list-length |
| 6709 | ** Removed: list-append, list-append! |
| 6710 | ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse! |
| 6711 | |
| 6712 | ** array-map renamed to array-map! |
| 6713 | |
| 6714 | ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map! |
| 6715 | |
| 6716 | ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer |
| 6717 | |
| 6718 | Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'. |
| 6719 | That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure |
| 6720 | passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump |
| 6721 | buffer objekt as an argument to throw. |
| 6722 | |
| 6723 | This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the |
| 6724 | extra complexity it introduces. |
| 6725 | |
| 6726 | ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile. |
| 6727 | This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future. |
| 6728 | |
| 6729 | To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment |
| 6730 | variable to any non-empty value. |
| 6731 | |
| 6732 | ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the |
| 6733 | normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'. |
| 6734 | |
| 6735 | * Changes to the gh_ interface |
| 6736 | |
| 6737 | ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files. |
| 6738 | gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below. |
| 6739 | |
| 6740 | ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x) |
| 6741 | |
| 6742 | Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current |
| 6743 | output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'. |
| 6744 | |
| 6745 | ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length. |
| 6746 | |
| 6747 | ** vector handling routines |
| 6748 | |
| 6749 | Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles |
| 6750 | (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now |
| 6751 | exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref() |
| 6752 | have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing |
| 6753 | vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented. |
| 6754 | |
| 6755 | ** pair and list routines |
| 6756 | |
| 6757 | Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were |
| 6758 | missing. |
| 6759 | |
| 6760 | ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect |
| 6761 | |
| 6762 | New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme |
| 6763 | and C. |
| 6764 | |
| 6765 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 6766 | |
| 6767 | ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files. |
| 6768 | |
| 6769 | Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes |
| 6770 | care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize |
| 6771 | Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard |
| 6772 | bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold |
| 6773 | site-specific initialization code. |
| 6774 | |
| 6775 | Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there |
| 6776 | is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other |
| 6777 | initialization processes. |
| 6778 | |
| 6779 | This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't |
| 6780 | make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for |
| 6781 | non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile |
| 6782 | initialized properly. |
| 6783 | |
| 6784 | ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files. |
| 6785 | Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized; |
| 6786 | see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files. |
| 6787 | |
| 6788 | ** Function: scm_load_startup_files |
| 6789 | This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file |
| 6790 | (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since |
| 6791 | this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's |
| 6792 | probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway. |
| 6793 | |
| 6794 | ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly. |
| 6795 | |
| 6796 | The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns |
| 6797 | structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the |
| 6798 | smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will |
| 6799 | set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other |
| 6800 | objects the smob refers to get marked. |
| 6801 | |
| 6802 | Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically |
| 6803 | already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions |
| 6804 | which look like this: |
| 6805 | |
| 6806 | { |
| 6807 | if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr)) |
| 6808 | return SCM_BOOL_F; |
| 6809 | SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr); |
| 6810 | ... mark objects to which the smob refers ... |
| 6811 | } |
| 6812 | |
| 6813 | are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any |
| 6814 | other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used |
| 6815 | to work this way. |
| 6816 | |
| 6817 | ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed. |
| 6818 | |
| 6819 | If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the |
| 6820 | functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob, |
| 6821 | you will need to change your functions slightly. |
| 6822 | |
| 6823 | The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself |
| 6824 | as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the |
| 6825 | port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an |
| 6826 | scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags |
| 6827 | it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure. |
| 6828 | |
| 6829 | Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the |
| 6830 | following scm_ptobfuns functions: |
| 6831 | |
| 6832 | int (*free) (SCM port); |
| 6833 | int (*fputc) (int, SCM port); |
| 6834 | int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port); |
| 6835 | scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr, |
| 6836 | scm_sizet size, |
| 6837 | scm_sizet nitems, |
| 6838 | SCM port)); |
| 6839 | int (*fflush) (SCM port); |
| 6840 | int (*fgetc) (SCM port); |
| 6841 | int (*fclose) (SCM port); |
| 6842 | |
| 6843 | The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods |
| 6844 | are unchanged. |
| 6845 | |
| 6846 | If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy |
| 6847 | to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to |
| 6848 | the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect. |
| 6849 | |
| 6850 | Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the |
| 6851 | C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind |
| 6852 | you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions. |
| 6853 | |
| 6854 | |
| 6855 | ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds, |
| 6856 | SELECT_TYPE *rfds, |
| 6857 | SELECT_TYPE *wfds, |
| 6858 | SELECT_TYPE *efds, |
| 6859 | struct timeval *timeout); |
| 6860 | |
| 6861 | This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS. |
| 6862 | It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative |
| 6863 | thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in |
| 6864 | these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping |
| 6865 | will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is |
| 6866 | only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'. |
| 6867 | |
| 6868 | ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag, |
| 6869 | scm_catch_body_t body, |
| 6870 | void *body_data, |
| 6871 | scm_catch_handler_t handler, |
| 6872 | void *handler_data) |
| 6873 | |
| 6874 | A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions |
| 6875 | scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want |
| 6876 | the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack' |
| 6877 | (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to |
| 6878 | use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and |
| 6879 | scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.) |
| 6880 | |
| 6881 | ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body, |
| 6882 | void *body_data, |
| 6883 | scm_catch_handler_t handler, |
| 6884 | void *handler_data) |
| 6885 | |
| 6886 | Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to |
| 6887 | scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when |
| 6888 | spawning threads from application C code. |
| 6889 | |
| 6890 | ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally |
| 6891 | intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But |
| 6892 | that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch, |
| 6893 | thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...). |
| 6894 | The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions |
| 6895 | in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch. |
| 6896 | |
| 6897 | ** Removed functions: |
| 6898 | |
| 6899 | scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x, |
| 6900 | scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x |
| 6901 | |
| 6902 | ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9. |
| 6903 | |
| 6904 | These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken |
| 6905 | from Erick Gallesio's STk. |
| 6906 | |
| 6907 | ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x |
| 6908 | |
| 6909 | ** mbstrings are now removed |
| 6910 | |
| 6911 | This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and |
| 6912 | scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed. |
| 6913 | |
| 6914 | ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed. |
| 6915 | |
| 6916 | Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions |
| 6917 | have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and |
| 6918 | their new names and arguments: |
| 6919 | |
| 6920 | scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port); |
| 6921 | scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port); |
| 6922 | scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port); |
| 6923 | scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port); |
| 6924 | |
| 6925 | |
| 6926 | ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed. |
| 6927 | |
| 6928 | ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D |
| 6929 | |
| 6930 | SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from |
| 6931 | strings. |
| 6932 | |
| 6933 | ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change! |
| 6934 | |
| 6935 | Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer |
| 6936 | take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to |
| 6937 | pass a #f arg to catch. |
| 6938 | |
| 6939 | ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly. |
| 6940 | |
| 6941 | The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed |
| 6942 | by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that |
| 6943 | protection. |
| 6944 | |
| 6945 | These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there |
| 6946 | is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and |
| 6947 | scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than |
| 6948 | zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an |
| 6949 | object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not |
| 6950 | reclaim its storage. |
| 6951 | |
| 6952 | This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without |
| 6953 | worrying that some other function you call will call |
| 6954 | scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the |
| 6955 | functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects |
| 6956 | they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that |
| 6957 | objects will be freed only at appropriate times. |
| 6958 | |
| 6959 | \f |
| 6960 | Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997): |
| 6961 | |
| 6962 | * Changes to the distribution |
| 6963 | |
| 6964 | ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com. |
| 6965 | The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful |
| 6966 | owner. |
| 6967 | |
| 6968 | Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via |
| 6969 | anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz. |
| 6970 | |
| 6971 | Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz |
| 6972 | For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz |
| 6973 | |
| 6974 | ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit. |
| 6975 | |
| 6976 | If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need |
| 6977 | to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the |
| 6978 | source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples. |
| 6979 | |
| 6980 | * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs |
| 6981 | |
| 6982 | ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes |
| 6983 | $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that |
| 6984 | you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them. |
| 6985 | (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name |
| 6986 | contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move |
| 6987 | your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.) |
| 6988 | |
| 6989 | The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend |
| 6990 | putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a |
| 6991 | package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under |
| 6992 | $(datadir)/guile. |
| 6993 | |
| 6994 | ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is |
| 6995 | installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own |
| 6996 | programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if |
| 6997 | you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx. |
| 6998 | |
| 6999 | If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your |
| 7000 | application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate |
| 7001 | libraries to your link command: |
| 7002 | |
| 7003 | ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile. |
| 7004 | AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main) |
| 7005 | AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main) |
| 7006 | AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell) |
| 7007 | |
| 7008 | The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx |
| 7009 | library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to |
| 7010 | retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately. |
| 7011 | |
| 7012 | * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax |
| 7013 | |
| 7014 | ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default. |
| 7015 | You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option |
| 7016 | to configure. |
| 7017 | |
| 7018 | (dynamic-link FILENAME) |
| 7019 | |
| 7020 | Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it |
| 7021 | into the running Guile application. When everything works out, |
| 7022 | return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object |
| 7023 | file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are |
| 7024 | searched is system dependent. |
| 7025 | |
| 7026 | (dynamic-object? VAL) |
| 7027 | |
| 7028 | Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file. |
| 7029 | |
| 7030 | (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ) |
| 7031 | |
| 7032 | Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ |
| 7033 | should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'. |
| 7034 | |
| 7035 | (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) |
| 7036 | |
| 7037 | Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol) |
| 7038 | in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used |
| 7039 | with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now, |
| 7040 | these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the |
| 7041 | function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme |
| 7042 | representation. |
| 7043 | |
| 7044 | (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ) |
| 7045 | |
| 7046 | Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The |
| 7047 | function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored. |
| 7048 | When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that |
| 7049 | function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol, |
| 7050 | etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to |
| 7051 | |
| 7052 | (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f) |
| 7053 | |
| 7054 | Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with |
| 7055 | SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS). |
| 7056 | |
| 7057 | (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS) |
| 7058 | |
| 7059 | Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it |
| 7060 | some arguments and return its return value. The C function is |
| 7061 | expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like |
| 7062 | `main': |
| 7063 | |
| 7064 | int c_func (int argc, char **argv); |
| 7065 | |
| 7066 | ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of |
| 7067 | `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The |
| 7068 | return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the |
| 7069 | call to `dynamic-args-call'. |
| 7070 | |
| 7071 | When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system, |
| 7072 | the above functions throw errors, but they are still available. |
| 7073 | |
| 7074 | Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux: |
| 7075 | |
| 7076 | (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so")) |
| 7077 | (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '()) |
| 7078 | |
| 7079 | See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments. |
| 7080 | |
| 7081 | ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed |
| 7082 | in a future version of Guile. Instead of |
| 7083 | |
| 7084 | #/foo/bar/baz |
| 7085 | |
| 7086 | instead write |
| 7087 | |
| 7088 | (foo bar baz) |
| 7089 | |
| 7090 | The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice. |
| 7091 | |
| 7092 | ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the |
| 7093 | underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to |
| 7094 | implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in |
| 7095 | a more informative way. |
| 7096 | |
| 7097 | The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer* |
| 7098 | whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is |
| 7099 | not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the |
| 7100 | structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f' |
| 7101 | or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in |
| 7102 | the boring #<struct 80458270> form. |
| 7103 | |
| 7104 | This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement |
| 7105 | type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about |
| 7106 | "printing structs". |
| 7107 | |
| 7108 | One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing |
| 7109 | procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually |
| 7110 | called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described |
| 7111 | above). |
| 7112 | |
| 7113 | ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A |
| 7114 | token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme |
| 7115 | symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME. |
| 7116 | Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing |
| 7117 | keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an |
| 7118 | expression, keywords are self-quoting objects. |
| 7119 | |
| 7120 | Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless |
| 7121 | of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword' |
| 7122 | read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax, |
| 7123 | which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent |
| 7124 | symbols.) |
| 7125 | |
| 7126 | ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included |
| 7127 | functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library. |
| 7128 | In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the |
| 7129 | distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile |
| 7130 | 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all |
| 7131 | of SCSH's regular expression functions. |
| 7132 | |
| 7133 | If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library, |
| 7134 | and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as |
| 7135 | Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your |
| 7136 | Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking |
| 7137 | whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol. |
| 7138 | |
| 7139 | *** regexp functions |
| 7140 | |
| 7141 | By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That |
| 7142 | means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must |
| 7143 | be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters. |
| 7144 | |
| 7145 | This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented |
| 7146 | by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible |
| 7147 | with SCSH regular expressions. |
| 7148 | |
| 7149 | **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START] |
| 7150 | Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare |
| 7151 | it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the |
| 7152 | position of STR at which to begin matching. |
| 7153 | |
| 7154 | `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what, |
| 7155 | if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match |
| 7156 | Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all, |
| 7157 | `string-match' returns `#f'. |
| 7158 | |
| 7159 | Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN |
| 7160 | argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is |
| 7161 | expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular |
| 7162 | expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better |
| 7163 | performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then |
| 7164 | match strings against the compiled regexp. |
| 7165 | |
| 7166 | **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS] |
| 7167 | Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the |
| 7168 | compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal |
| 7169 | regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a |
| 7170 | `regular-expression-syntax' error. |
| 7171 | |
| 7172 | FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following: |
| 7173 | |
| 7174 | **** Constant: regexp/extended |
| 7175 | Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting |
| 7176 | STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used. |
| 7177 | If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended. |
| 7178 | |
| 7179 | **** Constant: regexp/icase |
| 7180 | Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the |
| 7181 | returned regular expression will be case insensitive. |
| 7182 | |
| 7183 | **** Constant: regexp/newline |
| 7184 | Match-any-character operators don't match a newline. |
| 7185 | |
| 7186 | A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a |
| 7187 | newline. |
| 7188 | |
| 7189 | Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string |
| 7190 | immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS |
| 7191 | passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol. |
| 7192 | |
| 7193 | Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string |
| 7194 | immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS |
| 7195 | passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol. |
| 7196 | |
| 7197 | **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]] |
| 7198 | Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If |
| 7199 | the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching |
| 7200 | from that position in the string. Return a match structure |
| 7201 | describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be |
| 7202 | found. |
| 7203 | |
| 7204 | FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following: |
| 7205 | |
| 7206 | **** Constant: regexp/notbol |
| 7207 | The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but |
| 7208 | see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be |
| 7209 | used when different portions of a string are passed to |
| 7210 | regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be |
| 7211 | interpreted as the beginning of the line. |
| 7212 | |
| 7213 | **** Constant: regexp/noteol |
| 7214 | The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the |
| 7215 | compilation flag regexp/newline above) |
| 7216 | |
| 7217 | **** Function: regexp? OBJ |
| 7218 | Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f' |
| 7219 | otherwise. |
| 7220 | |
| 7221 | Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string |
| 7222 | and replace them with the contents of another string. |
| 7223 | |
| 7224 | **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...] |
| 7225 | Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match |
| 7226 | structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and |
| 7227 | may be one of the following arguments: |
| 7228 | |
| 7229 | * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim. |
| 7230 | |
| 7231 | * An integer. The submatch with that number is written. |
| 7232 | |
| 7233 | * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding |
| 7234 | the regexp match is written. |
| 7235 | |
| 7236 | * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string |
| 7237 | following the regexp match is written. |
| 7238 | |
| 7239 | PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead, |
| 7240 | `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs |
| 7241 | and returns that. |
| 7242 | |
| 7243 | **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...] |
| 7244 | Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global |
| 7245 | substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an |
| 7246 | argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a |
| 7247 | REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string |
| 7248 | which should be matched against this regular expression. |
| 7249 | |
| 7250 | Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following |
| 7251 | exceptions: |
| 7252 | |
| 7253 | * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it |
| 7254 | will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given |
| 7255 | regular expression match. It should return a string to be |
| 7256 | written out to PORT. |
| 7257 | |
| 7258 | * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse |
| 7259 | on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in |
| 7260 | order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is |
| 7261 | not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global' |
| 7262 | will return after processing a single match. |
| 7263 | |
| 7264 | *** Match Structures |
| 7265 | |
| 7266 | A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and |
| 7267 | `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched |
| 7268 | the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to |
| 7269 | the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending |
| 7270 | positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any |
| 7271 | parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each |
| 7272 | submatch. |
| 7273 | |
| 7274 | In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match' |
| 7275 | argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to |
| 7276 | `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some |
| 7277 | information about the original target string that was matched against a |
| 7278 | regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference. |
| 7279 | |
| 7280 | **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ |
| 7281 | Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous |
| 7282 | call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise. |
| 7283 | |
| 7284 | **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N] |
| 7285 | Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N. |
| 7286 | Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If |
| 7287 | the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression |
| 7288 | number N did not match, return `#f'. |
| 7289 | |
| 7290 | **** Function: match:start MATCH [N] |
| 7291 | Return the starting position of submatch number N. |
| 7292 | |
| 7293 | **** Function: match:end MATCH [N] |
| 7294 | Return the ending position of submatch number N. |
| 7295 | |
| 7296 | **** Function: match:prefix MATCH |
| 7297 | Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match. |
| 7298 | |
| 7299 | **** Function: match:suffix MATCH |
| 7300 | Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match. |
| 7301 | |
| 7302 | **** Function: match:count MATCH |
| 7303 | Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH. |
| 7304 | Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a |
| 7305 | subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count. |
| 7306 | |
| 7307 | **** Function: match:string MATCH |
| 7308 | Return the original TARGET string. |
| 7309 | |
| 7310 | *** Backslash Escapes |
| 7311 | |
| 7312 | Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$' |
| 7313 | exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents |
| 7314 | a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against |
| 7315 | a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the |
| 7316 | asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of |
| 7317 | the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic. |
| 7318 | |
| 7319 | You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash |
| 7320 | character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and |
| 7321 | is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a |
| 7322 | regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary |
| 7323 | character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have. |
| 7324 | Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to |
| 7325 | `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine |
| 7326 | to match only a single asterisk in the target string. |
| 7327 | |
| 7328 | Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a |
| 7329 | regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the |
| 7330 | backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a |
| 7331 | TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\' |
| 7332 | followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression |
| 7333 | `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp |
| 7334 | each match a single backslash in the target string. |
| 7335 | |
| 7336 | **** Function: regexp-quote STR |
| 7337 | Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and |
| 7338 | return the resulting string. |
| 7339 | |
| 7340 | *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as |
| 7341 | in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has |
| 7342 | special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters |
| 7343 | the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing |
| 7344 | Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character. |
| 7345 | Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab. |
| 7346 | Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader |
| 7347 | before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are |
| 7348 | ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be |
| 7349 | translated to the single character `*'. |
| 7350 | |
| 7351 | This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions, |
| 7352 | since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to |
| 7353 | escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash |
| 7354 | is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two* |
| 7355 | consecutive backslashes: |
| 7356 | |
| 7357 | (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*")) |
| 7358 | |
| 7359 | The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before |
| 7360 | any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the |
| 7361 | string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want. |
| 7362 | |
| 7363 | This also means that in order to write a regular expression that |
| 7364 | matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in |
| 7365 | the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair |
| 7366 | of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single |
| 7367 | backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the |
| 7368 | regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence: |
| 7369 | |
| 7370 | (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*")) |
| 7371 | |
| 7372 | The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both |
| 7373 | regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems |
| 7374 | have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described |
| 7375 | above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard |
| 7376 | both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention |
| 7377 | would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe |
| 7378 | ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support |
| 7379 | strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing |
| 7380 | extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this |
| 7381 | cumbersome escape syntax. |
| 7382 | |
| 7383 | * Changes to the gh_ interface |
| 7384 | |
| 7385 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 7386 | |
| 7387 | * Changes to system call interfaces: |
| 7388 | |
| 7389 | ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception |
| 7390 | if an error occurs. |
| 7391 | |
| 7392 | *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers |
| 7393 | |
| 7394 | (sigaction signum [action] [flags]) |
| 7395 | |
| 7396 | signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value |
| 7397 | of SIGINT etc. |
| 7398 | |
| 7399 | If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current |
| 7400 | signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL |
| 7401 | (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which |
| 7402 | handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the |
| 7403 | signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler. |
| 7404 | |
| 7405 | If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum. |
| 7406 | action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of |
| 7407 | SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore |
| 7408 | whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used. |
| 7409 | Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is |
| 7410 | always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The |
| 7411 | return value is a pair with information about the old handler as |
| 7412 | described above. |
| 7413 | |
| 7414 | This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking" |
| 7415 | facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may |
| 7416 | provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data |
| 7417 | structures. |
| 7418 | |
| 7419 | *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running |
| 7420 | `force-output' on every port open for output. |
| 7421 | |
| 7422 | ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new |
| 7423 | global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values |
| 7424 | of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation |
| 7425 | list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings). |
| 7426 | For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were |
| 7427 | installed, you can say: |
| 7428 | |
| 7429 | guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)" |
| 7430 | |
| 7431 | |
| 7432 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 7433 | |
| 7434 | ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the |
| 7435 | existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call |
| 7436 | exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just |
| 7437 | returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for |
| 7438 | new dynamic roots and threads. |
| 7439 | |
| 7440 | \f |
| 7441 | Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997): |
| 7442 | |
| 7443 | * Changes to the distribution. |
| 7444 | |
| 7445 | The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller |
| 7446 | pieces: |
| 7447 | guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself. |
| 7448 | guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and |
| 7449 | Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk |
| 7450 | is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces. |
| 7451 | guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular |
| 7452 | expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax |
| 7453 | programming language. These are packaged together because the |
| 7454 | Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code. |
| 7455 | |
| 7456 | This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0 |
| 7457 | release. |
| 7458 | |
| 7459 | We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of |
| 7460 | date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we |
| 7461 | will distribute it. |
| 7462 | |
| 7463 | |
| 7464 | |
| 7465 | * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter |
| 7466 | |
| 7467 | ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin |
| 7468 | Shivers' Scheme Shell. |
| 7469 | |
| 7470 | In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are |
| 7471 | exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and |
| 7472 | stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by |
| 7473 | the (command-line) function. |
| 7474 | -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit |
| 7475 | -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit |
| 7476 | -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively |
| 7477 | |
| 7478 | The switches below are processed as they are encountered. |
| 7479 | -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE |
| 7480 | -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to |
| 7481 | command line arguments |
| 7482 | -ds do -s script at this point |
| 7483 | --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental) |
| 7484 | -h, --help display this help and exit |
| 7485 | -v, --version display version information and exit |
| 7486 | \ read arguments from following script lines |
| 7487 | |
| 7488 | So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin) |
| 7489 | which re-implements the traditional "echo" command: |
| 7490 | |
| 7491 | #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s |
| 7492 | !# |
| 7493 | (define (main args) |
| 7494 | (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " ")) |
| 7495 | (cdr args)) |
| 7496 | (newline)) |
| 7497 | |
| 7498 | (main (command-line)) |
| 7499 | |
| 7500 | Suppose we invoke this script as follows: |
| 7501 | |
| 7502 | ekko a speckled gecko |
| 7503 | |
| 7504 | Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!' |
| 7505 | token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the |
| 7506 | following list of command-line arguments: |
| 7507 | |
| 7508 | ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko") |
| 7509 | |
| 7510 | Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on |
| 7511 | the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that |
| 7512 | with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which |
| 7513 | defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of |
| 7514 | remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko"). |
| 7515 | |
| 7516 | In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form: |
| 7517 | |
| 7518 | #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT |
| 7519 | |
| 7520 | where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter |
| 7521 | executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to |
| 7522 | the interpreter. |
| 7523 | |
| 7524 | You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is |
| 7525 | limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile |
| 7526 | provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with, |
| 7527 | SCSH) for circumventing them. |
| 7528 | |
| 7529 | If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character, |
| 7530 | `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second |
| 7531 | and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example, |
| 7532 | here is another implementation of the `ekko' script: |
| 7533 | |
| 7534 | #!/usr/local/bin/guile \ |
| 7535 | -e main -s |
| 7536 | !# |
| 7537 | (define (main args) |
| 7538 | (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " ")) |
| 7539 | (cdr args)) |
| 7540 | (newline)) |
| 7541 | |
| 7542 | If the user invokes this script as follows: |
| 7543 | |
| 7544 | ekko a speckled gecko |
| 7545 | |
| 7546 | Unix expands this into |
| 7547 | |
| 7548 | /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko |
| 7549 | |
| 7550 | When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments |
| 7551 | read from the second line of the script, producing: |
| 7552 | |
| 7553 | /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko |
| 7554 | |
| 7555 | This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function |
| 7556 | `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko"). |
| 7557 | |
| 7558 | Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments: |
| 7559 | - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two |
| 7560 | spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument. |
| 7561 | - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the |
| 7562 | backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion. |
| 7563 | - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will |
| 7564 | also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline |
| 7565 | following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument; |
| 7566 | it only terminates the argument list.) |
| 7567 | - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes |
| 7568 | backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences |
| 7569 | like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument |
| 7570 | constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a |
| 7571 | terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three |
| 7572 | octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As |
| 7573 | above, characters produced this way are argument constituents. |
| 7574 | Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed. |
| 7575 | |
| 7576 | * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs |
| 7577 | |
| 7578 | ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your |
| 7579 | system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on |
| 7580 | all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system |
| 7581 | supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared |
| 7582 | libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script. |
| 7583 | |
| 7584 | Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because |
| 7585 | it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position- |
| 7586 | independent object code, and once to produce normal object code. |
| 7587 | |
| 7588 | ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile. |
| 7589 | |
| 7590 | To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against |
| 7591 | -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using |
| 7592 | autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the |
| 7593 | following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to |
| 7594 | your link command: |
| 7595 | |
| 7596 | ### Find quickthreads and libguile. |
| 7597 | AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main) |
| 7598 | AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell) |
| 7599 | |
| 7600 | * Changes to Scheme functions |
| 7601 | |
| 7602 | ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional, |
| 7603 | and disabled by default. |
| 7604 | |
| 7605 | The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some |
| 7606 | interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword |
| 7607 | arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also |
| 7608 | accept symbols whose names begin with `:'. |
| 7609 | |
| 7610 | To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug) |
| 7611 | module: |
| 7612 | (use-modules (ice-9 debug)) |
| 7613 | |
| 7614 | Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows: |
| 7615 | (read-set! keywords 'prefix) |
| 7616 | |
| 7617 | To disable keyword syntax, do this: |
| 7618 | (read-set! keywords #f) |
| 7619 | |
| 7620 | ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as |
| 7621 | arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable |
| 7622 | strings as arguments, although they never made use of this |
| 7623 | restriction. |
| 7624 | |
| 7625 | ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These |
| 7626 | functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!', |
| 7627 | `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and |
| 7628 | `array-index-map!'. |
| 7629 | |
| 7630 | ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging |
| 7631 | support for Scheme functions. |
| 7632 | |
| 7633 | The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments, |
| 7634 | and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and |
| 7635 | arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no |
| 7636 | arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being |
| 7637 | traced. |
| 7638 | |
| 7639 | The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments, |
| 7640 | and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When |
| 7641 | invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced |
| 7642 | procedures. |
| 7643 | |
| 7644 | The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we |
| 7645 | don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects |
| 7646 | themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be |
| 7647 | traced. |
| 7648 | |
| 7649 | ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to |
| 7650 | `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT. |
| 7651 | - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt. |
| 7652 | - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt. |
| 7653 | - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and |
| 7654 | display the result as a prompt. |
| 7655 | - Otherwise, we display "> ". |
| 7656 | |
| 7657 | ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a |
| 7658 | string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression |
| 7659 | in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an |
| 7660 | unspecified value. |
| 7661 | |
| 7662 | ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a |
| 7663 | procedure of zero arguments. |
| 7664 | |
| 7665 | ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This |
| 7666 | means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its |
| 7667 | argument is bound in the current module. |
| 7668 | |
| 7669 | ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your |
| 7670 | environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It |
| 7671 | accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their |
| 7672 | public bindings into the current module. |
| 7673 | |
| 7674 | ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff |
| 7675 | NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object. |
| 7676 | |
| 7677 | ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash |
| 7678 | table containing copies of all the root module's bindings. |
| 7679 | |
| 7680 | ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as |
| 7681 | `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table. |
| 7682 | |
| 7683 | ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be |
| 7684 | equivalent if they have the same name and the same value. |
| 7685 | |
| 7686 | ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments |
| 7687 | given to Guile, as a list of strings. |
| 7688 | |
| 7689 | When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the |
| 7690 | script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or |
| 7691 | `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected |
| 7692 | behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its |
| 7693 | command-line arguments gets this behavior as well. |
| 7694 | |
| 7695 | ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile' |
| 7696 | in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is |
| 7697 | mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches, |
| 7698 | but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances. |
| 7699 | |
| 7700 | ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its |
| 7701 | argument. |
| 7702 | |
| 7703 | ** Changes to I/O functions |
| 7704 | |
| 7705 | *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and |
| 7706 | `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling |
| 7707 | case insensitivity and a `#' parser. |
| 7708 | |
| 7709 | Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called |
| 7710 | `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the |
| 7711 | `read-hash-extend' function (see below). |
| 7712 | |
| 7713 | *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the |
| 7714 | syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way. |
| 7715 | |
| 7716 | (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC) |
| 7717 | When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by |
| 7718 | the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream. |
| 7719 | If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR. |
| 7720 | |
| 7721 | The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port. |
| 7722 | |
| 7723 | *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a |
| 7724 | general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams. |
| 7725 | |
| 7726 | (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM]) |
| 7727 | Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string), |
| 7728 | or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to |
| 7729 | the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how |
| 7730 | the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the |
| 7731 | following symbols: |
| 7732 | |
| 7733 | 'trim omit delimiter from result |
| 7734 | 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream |
| 7735 | 'concat append delimiter character to returned value |
| 7736 | 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR) |
| 7737 | |
| 7738 | HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek. |
| 7739 | |
| 7740 | (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END]) |
| 7741 | A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'. |
| 7742 | |
| 7743 | The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the |
| 7744 | half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole |
| 7745 | string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of |
| 7746 | START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e. |
| 7747 | 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF). |
| 7748 | |
| 7749 | It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled |
| 7750 | up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the |
| 7751 | port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object. |
| 7752 | |
| 7753 | If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated |
| 7754 | by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter |
| 7755 | determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described |
| 7756 | above, and defaults to 'peek. |
| 7757 | |
| 7758 | (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH |
| 7759 | manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.) |
| 7760 | |
| 7761 | *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement |
| 7762 | `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'. |
| 7763 | |
| 7764 | (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END]) |
| 7765 | |
| 7766 | This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ). |
| 7767 | - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a |
| 7768 | character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated |
| 7769 | the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding |
| 7770 | a delimiting character. |
| 7771 | - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF. |
| 7772 | |
| 7773 | If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter |
| 7774 | character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the |
| 7775 | terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the |
| 7776 | input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream |
| 7777 | where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case, |
| 7778 | the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call. |
| 7779 | |
| 7780 | (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual, |
| 7781 | by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.) |
| 7782 | |
| 7783 | *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now |
| 7784 | trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the |
| 7785 | returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat). |
| 7786 | |
| 7787 | *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now |
| 7788 | take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of |
| 7789 | the array to read and write. |
| 7790 | |
| 7791 | *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's |
| 7792 | inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this |
| 7793 | way. |
| 7794 | |
| 7795 | ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface |
| 7796 | |
| 7797 | *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system |
| 7798 | call. |
| 7799 | |
| 7800 | (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE) |
| 7801 | Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument. |
| 7802 | Values for COMMAND are: |
| 7803 | |
| 7804 | F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor |
| 7805 | F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag |
| 7806 | F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE |
| 7807 | F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open |
| 7808 | F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE |
| 7809 | F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO |
| 7810 | F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO |
| 7811 | FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is |
| 7812 | |
| 7813 | For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call. |
| 7814 | |
| 7815 | *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with |
| 7816 | SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the |
| 7817 | expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to |
| 7818 | MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call. |
| 7819 | The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the |
| 7820 | corresponding return set will be the same. |
| 7821 | |
| 7822 | *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are |
| 7823 | now: |
| 7824 | |
| 7825 | (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV) |
| 7826 | Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of |
| 7827 | the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should |
| 7828 | be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the |
| 7829 | permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is |
| 7830 | 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the |
| 7831 | special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of |
| 7832 | special file being created. |
| 7833 | |
| 7834 | *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid |
| 7835 | clashing with various SCSH forks. |
| 7836 | |
| 7837 | *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!' |
| 7838 | and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument; |
| 7839 | you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer |
| 7840 | return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message |
| 7841 | received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length |
| 7842 | and originating address. |
| 7843 | |
| 7844 | *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the |
| 7845 | `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions. |
| 7846 | We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface. |
| 7847 | |
| 7848 | *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case |
| 7849 | of `open'. |
| 7850 | |
| 7851 | *** There are new functions to break down process termination status |
| 7852 | values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by |
| 7853 | `waitpid'. |
| 7854 | |
| 7855 | (status:exit-val STATUS) |
| 7856 | If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit |
| 7857 | code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or |
| 7858 | returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally, |
| 7859 | this function returns #f. |
| 7860 | |
| 7861 | (status:stop-sig STATUS) |
| 7862 | If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function |
| 7863 | returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns |
| 7864 | #f. |
| 7865 | |
| 7866 | (status:term-sig STATUS) |
| 7867 | If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns |
| 7868 | the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function |
| 7869 | returns false. |
| 7870 | |
| 7871 | POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on |
| 7872 | a valid STATUS value. |
| 7873 | |
| 7874 | These functions are compatible with SCSH. |
| 7875 | |
| 7876 | *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors |
| 7877 | returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are: |
| 7878 | |
| 7879 | Component Accessor Setter |
| 7880 | ========================= ============ ============ |
| 7881 | seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec |
| 7882 | minutes tm:min set-tm:min |
| 7883 | hours tm:hour set-tm:hour |
| 7884 | day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday |
| 7885 | month tm:mon set-tm:mon |
| 7886 | year tm:year set-tm:year |
| 7887 | day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday |
| 7888 | day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday |
| 7889 | daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst |
| 7890 | GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff |
| 7891 | name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone |
| 7892 | |
| 7893 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname', |
| 7894 | describing the host system: |
| 7895 | |
| 7896 | Component Accessor |
| 7897 | ============================================== ================ |
| 7898 | name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname |
| 7899 | network name of this machine utsname:nodename |
| 7900 | release level of the operating system utsname:release |
| 7901 | version level of the operating system utsname:version |
| 7902 | machine hardware platform utsname:machine |
| 7903 | |
| 7904 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw', |
| 7905 | `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the |
| 7906 | system's user database: |
| 7907 | |
| 7908 | Component Accessor |
| 7909 | ====================== ================= |
| 7910 | user name passwd:name |
| 7911 | user password passwd:passwd |
| 7912 | user id passwd:uid |
| 7913 | group id passwd:gid |
| 7914 | real name passwd:gecos |
| 7915 | home directory passwd:dir |
| 7916 | shell program passwd:shell |
| 7917 | |
| 7918 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr', |
| 7919 | `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the |
| 7920 | system's group database: |
| 7921 | |
| 7922 | Component Accessor |
| 7923 | ======================= ============ |
| 7924 | group name group:name |
| 7925 | group password group:passwd |
| 7926 | group id group:gid |
| 7927 | group members group:mem |
| 7928 | |
| 7929 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost', |
| 7930 | `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing |
| 7931 | internet hosts: |
| 7932 | |
| 7933 | Component Accessor |
| 7934 | ========================= =============== |
| 7935 | official name of host hostent:name |
| 7936 | alias list hostent:aliases |
| 7937 | host address type hostent:addrtype |
| 7938 | length of address hostent:length |
| 7939 | list of addresses hostent:addr-list |
| 7940 | |
| 7941 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet', |
| 7942 | `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet |
| 7943 | networks: |
| 7944 | |
| 7945 | Component Accessor |
| 7946 | ========================= =============== |
| 7947 | official name of net netent:name |
| 7948 | alias list netent:aliases |
| 7949 | net number type netent:addrtype |
| 7950 | net number netent:net |
| 7951 | |
| 7952 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto', |
| 7953 | `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing |
| 7954 | internet protocols: |
| 7955 | |
| 7956 | Component Accessor |
| 7957 | ========================= =============== |
| 7958 | official protocol name protoent:name |
| 7959 | alias list protoent:aliases |
| 7960 | protocol number protoent:proto |
| 7961 | |
| 7962 | *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv', |
| 7963 | `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing |
| 7964 | internet protocols: |
| 7965 | |
| 7966 | Component Accessor |
| 7967 | ========================= =============== |
| 7968 | official service name servent:name |
| 7969 | alias list servent:aliases |
| 7970 | port number servent:port |
| 7971 | protocol to use servent:proto |
| 7972 | |
| 7973 | *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by |
| 7974 | `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!': |
| 7975 | |
| 7976 | Component Accessor |
| 7977 | ======================================== =============== |
| 7978 | address format (`family') sockaddr:fam |
| 7979 | path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path |
| 7980 | address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr |
| 7981 | TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port |
| 7982 | |
| 7983 | *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent', |
| 7984 | `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of |
| 7985 | the user database. (They used to throw an exception.) |
| 7986 | |
| 7987 | Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the |
| 7988 | corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments. |
| 7989 | |
| 7990 | *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent', |
| 7991 | `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments. |
| 7992 | |
| 7993 | *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now |
| 7994 | provide more useful information when they throw an exception. |
| 7995 | |
| 7996 | *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'. |
| 7997 | |
| 7998 | *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature. |
| 7999 | |
| 8000 | *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE, |
| 8001 | giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a |
| 8002 | string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable. |
| 8003 | |
| 8004 | *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where |
| 8005 | TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of |
| 8006 | characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to |
| 8007 | return the remaining characters as a string. |
| 8008 | |
| 8009 | *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function. |
| 8010 | The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional |
| 8011 | component is no longer expressed in "ticks". |
| 8012 | |
| 8013 | *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change. |
| 8014 | |
| 8015 | * Changes to the gh_ interface |
| 8016 | |
| 8017 | ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the |
| 8018 | evaluation |
| 8019 | |
| 8020 | ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C |
| 8021 | array |
| 8022 | |
| 8023 | ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it, |
| 8024 | and returns the array |
| 8025 | |
| 8026 | ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish |
| 8027 | null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows |
| 8028 | the user to interpret the data both ways. |
| 8029 | |
| 8030 | * Changes to the scm_ interface |
| 8031 | |
| 8032 | ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a |
| 8033 | symbol's value from C code: |
| 8034 | |
| 8035 | SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME) |
| 8036 | Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string |
| 8037 | NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in |
| 8038 | the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED. |
| 8039 | |
| 8040 | ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables, |
| 8041 | without assigning them a value. |
| 8042 | |
| 8043 | SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME) |
| 8044 | Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a |
| 8045 | null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell. |
| 8046 | |
| 8047 | ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles |
| 8048 | all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch |
| 8049 | body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw. |
| 8050 | |
| 8051 | The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general |
| 8052 | enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw. |
| 8053 | |
| 8054 | TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function |
| 8055 | doesn't actually care about that. |
| 8056 | |
| 8057 | BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch; |
| 8058 | this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this: |
| 8059 | BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF) |
| 8060 | where: |
| 8061 | BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it |
| 8062 | through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make |
| 8063 | BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need. |
| 8064 | JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch, |
| 8065 | which we have just created and initialized. |
| 8066 | |
| 8067 | HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG, |
| 8068 | should one occur. We call it like this: |
| 8069 | HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS) |
| 8070 | where |
| 8071 | HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the |
| 8072 | same idea as BODY_DATA above. |
| 8073 | THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is |
| 8074 | TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a |
| 8075 | catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf. |
| 8076 | THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW |
| 8077 | function. |
| 8078 | |
| 8079 | BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA |
| 8080 | is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually |
| 8081 | use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is |
| 8082 | that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or |
| 8083 | HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and |
| 8084 | HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and |
| 8085 | HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the |
| 8086 | enclosed variables. |
| 8087 | |
| 8088 | Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a |
| 8089 | MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is |
| 8090 | to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic |
| 8091 | structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for |
| 8092 | references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA |
| 8093 | will be found. |
| 8094 | |
| 8095 | ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like |
| 8096 | scm_internal_catch, except: |
| 8097 | |
| 8098 | - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference). |
| 8099 | - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw. |
| 8100 | - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no |
| 8101 | jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the |
| 8102 | stack.) |
| 8103 | |
| 8104 | ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to |
| 8105 | scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch' |
| 8106 | --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f. |
| 8107 | |
| 8108 | BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which |
| 8109 | contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag |
| 8110 | we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by |
| 8111 | scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets |
| 8112 | no arguments. |
| 8113 | |
| 8114 | ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to |
| 8115 | scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch |
| 8116 | --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments. |
| 8117 | |
| 8118 | If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler |
| 8119 | procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM |
| 8120 | variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to |
| 8121 | be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack), |
| 8122 | or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC. |
| 8123 | |
| 8124 | ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with |
| 8125 | `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die. |
| 8126 | It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level. |
| 8127 | |
| 8128 | HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a |
| 8129 | message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That |
| 8130 | text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS. |
| 8131 | |
| 8132 | ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does |
| 8133 | not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all. |
| 8134 | |
| 8135 | ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to |
| 8136 | process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the |
| 8137 | stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH, |
| 8138 | the Scheme shell). |
| 8139 | |
| 8140 | To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules |
| 8141 | linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values |
| 8142 | of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add |
| 8143 | any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the |
| 8144 | argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This |
| 8145 | generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive |
| 8146 | command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone |
| 8147 | interpreter" above. |
| 8148 | |
| 8149 | ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you |
| 8150 | implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'. |
| 8151 | |
| 8152 | char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV) |
| 8153 | If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single |
| 8154 | backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file |
| 8155 | named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return |
| 8156 | the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a |
| 8157 | null pointer. |
| 8158 | |
| 8159 | For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts |
| 8160 | command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..." |
| 8161 | |
| 8162 | int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV) |
| 8163 | Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null |
| 8164 | pointer. |
| 8165 | |
| 8166 | For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source |
| 8167 | code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c. |
| 8168 | |
| 8169 | You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this |
| 8170 | function yourself. |
| 8171 | |
| 8172 | ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of |
| 8173 | command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they |
| 8174 | describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to |
| 8175 | evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining |
| 8176 | command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example, |
| 8177 | given the following arguments: |
| 8178 | |
| 8179 | -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko |
| 8180 | |
| 8181 | scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression: |
| 8182 | |
| 8183 | (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit)) |
| 8184 | |
| 8185 | You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this |
| 8186 | function yourself. |
| 8187 | |
| 8188 | ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for |
| 8189 | an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its |
| 8190 | command-line arguments. |
| 8191 | |
| 8192 | void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE) |
| 8193 | Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is |
| 8194 | non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline. |
| 8195 | If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the |
| 8196 | termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile, |
| 8197 | always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line |
| 8198 | usage problems.) |
| 8199 | |
| 8200 | You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this |
| 8201 | function yourself. |
| 8202 | |
| 8203 | ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no |
| 8204 | expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering. |
| 8205 | |
| 8206 | ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been |
| 8207 | rearranged slightly. They are now: |
| 8208 | |
| 8209 | SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME) |
| 8210 | Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to |
| 8211 | point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should |
| 8212 | be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string. |
| 8213 | |
| 8214 | SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME) |
| 8215 | Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible. |
| 8216 | |
| 8217 | SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME) |
| 8218 | Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME. |
| 8219 | Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to |
| 8220 | point to the Scheme variable's value cell. |
| 8221 | |
| 8222 | SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME) |
| 8223 | Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible. |
| 8224 | |
| 8225 | The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros |
| 8226 | to its standard output, given C source code as input. |
| 8227 | |
| 8228 | The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone. |
| 8229 | |
| 8230 | ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced |
| 8231 | by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C |
| 8232 | code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more |
| 8233 | information. |
| 8234 | |
| 8235 | ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now |
| 8236 | returns a port instead of an FD object. |
| 8237 | |
| 8238 | * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see |
| 8239 | libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING. |
| 8240 | |
| 8241 | \f |
| 8242 | Guile 1.0b3 |
| 8243 | |
| 8244 | User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0 |
| 8245 | (Sun 5 Jan 1997): |
| 8246 | |
| 8247 | * Changes to the 'guile' program: |
| 8248 | |
| 8249 | ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first |
| 8250 | searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if |
| 8251 | Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home |
| 8252 | directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that. |
| 8253 | |
| 8254 | ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter. |
| 8255 | |
| 8256 | To paraphrase the SCSH manual: |
| 8257 | |
| 8258 | When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two |
| 8259 | characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to |
| 8260 | be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code |
| 8261 | to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is |
| 8262 | specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of |
| 8263 | the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter, |
| 8264 | and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source |
| 8265 | filename as its first argument, with the original arguments |
| 8266 | following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call |
| 8267 | for more information. |
| 8268 | |
| 8269 | Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a |
| 8270 | compatible subset of that provided by SCSH. |
| 8271 | |
| 8272 | Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the |
| 8273 | name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two |
| 8274 | characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus, |
| 8275 | to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the |
| 8276 | following two lines at the top of the file: |
| 8277 | |
| 8278 | #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s |
| 8279 | !# |
| 8280 | |
| 8281 | Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name |
| 8282 | of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the |
| 8283 | start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'. |
| 8284 | |
| 8285 | For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme: |
| 8286 | |
| 8287 | #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s |
| 8288 | !# |
| 8289 | (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments)))) |
| 8290 | (if (pair? args) |
| 8291 | (begin |
| 8292 | (display (car args)) |
| 8293 | (if (pair? (cdr args)) |
| 8294 | (display " ")) |
| 8295 | (loop (cdr args))))) |
| 8296 | (newline) |
| 8297 | |
| 8298 | Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the |
| 8299 | end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we |
| 8300 | don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice, |
| 8301 | we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile |
| 8302 | scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system |
| 8303 | is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this |
| 8304 | horrible hack: |
| 8305 | |
| 8306 | #!/bin/sh |
| 8307 | exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"} |
| 8308 | !# |
| 8309 | |
| 8310 | Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax. |
| 8311 | |
| 8312 | |
| 8313 | ** You can now run Guile without installing it. |
| 8314 | |
| 8315 | Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile') |
| 8316 | couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed; |
| 8317 | they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' |
| 8318 | later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code |
| 8319 | itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme |
| 8320 | code. |
| 8321 | |
| 8322 | To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and |
| 8323 | then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a |
| 8324 | colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory |
| 8325 | of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the |
| 8326 | full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then |
| 8327 | you might say |
| 8328 | |
| 8329 | export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3 |
| 8330 | |
| 8331 | |
| 8332 | ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified> |
| 8333 | results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the |
| 8334 | expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup |
| 8335 | file. |
| 8336 | |
| 8337 | ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs; |
| 8338 | however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to |
| 8339 | request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate |
| 8340 | (backtrace) |
| 8341 | to see a backtrace, and |
| 8342 | (debug-enable 'backtrace) |
| 8343 | to see them by default. |
| 8344 | |
| 8345 | |
| 8346 | |
| 8347 | * Changes to Guile Scheme: |
| 8348 | |
| 8349 | ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list. |
| 8350 | |
| 8351 | This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly) |
| 8352 | upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme |
| 8353 | implementations. |
| 8354 | |
| 8355 | Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's |
| 8356 | type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change |
| 8357 | caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another |
| 8358 | way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this. |
| 8359 | |
| 8360 | |
| 8361 | ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive |
| 8362 | counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching |
| 8363 | elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior |
| 8364 | of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp |
| 8365 | functions which inspired them. |
| 8366 | |
| 8367 | I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it |
| 8368 | seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release, |
| 8369 | rather than after. |
| 8370 | |
| 8371 | |
| 8372 | ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile. |
| 8373 | |
| 8374 | ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed. |
| 8375 | |
| 8376 | *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search |
| 8377 | for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names |
| 8378 | a directory. |
| 8379 | |
| 8380 | *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to |
| 8381 | try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value |
| 8382 | is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm"). |
| 8383 | |
| 8384 | *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the |
| 8385 | value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME, |
| 8386 | with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a |
| 8387 | match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it |
| 8388 | returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f. |
| 8389 | |
| 8390 | %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories. |
| 8391 | |
| 8392 | *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP) |
| 8393 | uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if |
| 8394 | it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an |
| 8395 | error. |
| 8396 | |
| 8397 | The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the |
| 8398 | `read' function. |
| 8399 | |
| 8400 | *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load. |
| 8401 | |
| 8402 | *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path, |
| 8403 | basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with- |
| 8404 | path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions |
| 8405 | above should serve their purposes. |
| 8406 | |
| 8407 | *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure, |
| 8408 | `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being |
| 8409 | loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value |
| 8410 | is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs. |
| 8411 | |
| 8412 | This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages. |
| 8413 | |
| 8414 | |
| 8415 | ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level. |
| 8416 | We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level, |
| 8417 | because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or |
| 8418 | `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement. |
| 8419 | |
| 8420 | ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT, |
| 8421 | evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than |
| 8422 | simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a |
| 8423 | copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge. |
| 8424 | |
| 8425 | Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as |
| 8426 | for the `read' function. |
| 8427 | |
| 8428 | |
| 8429 | ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical |
| 8430 | to that of `integer?'. |
| 8431 | |
| 8432 | ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should |
| 8433 | use the R4RS names for these functions. |
| 8434 | |
| 8435 | ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle; |
| 8436 | it simply returns the object's property list. |
| 8437 | |
| 8438 | ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of |
| 8439 | returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in |
| 8440 | the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less |
| 8441 | useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions. |
| 8442 | |
| 8443 | ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'. |
| 8444 | |
| 8445 | ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0. |
| 8446 | |
| 8447 | |
| 8448 | * Changes to Guile's C interface: |
| 8449 | |
| 8450 | ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified. |
| 8451 | scm_boot_guile now has the prototype: |
| 8452 | |
| 8453 | void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC, |
| 8454 | char **ARGV, |
| 8455 | void (*main_func) (), |
| 8456 | void *closure); |
| 8457 | |
| 8458 | scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV. |
| 8459 | MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other |
| 8460 | packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC |
| 8461 | returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some |
| 8462 | other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself. |
| 8463 | |
| 8464 | scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings |
| 8465 | given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call |
| 8466 | scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will |
| 8467 | know which arguments have been processed. |
| 8468 | |
| 8469 | scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an |
| 8470 | error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a |
| 8471 | coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to |
| 8472 | handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish |
| 8473 | their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one. |
| 8474 | |
| 8475 | Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage |
| 8476 | collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above |
| 8477 | scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate |
| 8478 | SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw |
| 8479 | whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So, |
| 8480 | scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage |
| 8481 | people from making that mistake. |
| 8482 | |
| 8483 | The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other |
| 8484 | convenient ways to override these when desired. |
| 8485 | |
| 8486 | The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return. |
| 8487 | |
| 8488 | The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more |
| 8489 | general. |
| 8490 | |
| 8491 | |
| 8492 | ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's |
| 8493 | header files. |
| 8494 | |
| 8495 | In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous |
| 8496 | versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the |
| 8497 | Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since |
| 8498 | Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems' |
| 8499 | header files. |
| 8500 | |
| 8501 | Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must |
| 8502 | refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>. |
| 8503 | Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and |
| 8504 | the rest in $(includedir)/libguile. |
| 8505 | |
| 8506 | |
| 8507 | ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object, |
| 8508 | have been added to the Guile library. |
| 8509 | |
| 8510 | scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector. |
| 8511 | OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped, |
| 8512 | until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions |
| 8513 | return OBJ. |
| 8514 | |
| 8515 | Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call |
| 8516 | scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the |
| 8517 | next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely. |
| 8518 | |
| 8519 | Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just |
| 8520 | maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about |
| 8521 | this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object |
| 8522 | adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its |
| 8523 | argument from the list. |
| 8524 | |
| 8525 | |
| 8526 | ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression |
| 8527 | evaluated. |
| 8528 | |
| 8529 | ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a |
| 8530 | null-terminated string, and returns it. |
| 8531 | |
| 8532 | ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer |
| 8533 | to a Scheme port object. |
| 8534 | |
| 8535 | ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set |
| 8536 | the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function. |
| 8537 | |
| 8538 | \f |
| 8539 | Older changes: |
| 8540 | |
| 8541 | * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support. |
| 8542 | |
| 8543 | The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the |
| 8544 | user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The |
| 8545 | interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of |
| 8546 | referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme |
| 8547 | code as a special datatype. |
| 8548 | |
| 8549 | In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk |
| 8550 | maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the |
| 8551 | Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone |
| 8552 | Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages |
| 8553 | like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the |
| 8554 | fall of 1996. |
| 8555 | |
| 8556 | Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to |
| 8557 | lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be |
| 8558 | completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have |
| 8559 | decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on |
| 8560 | a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available. |
| 8561 | |
| 8562 | Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality. |
| 8563 | |
| 8564 | \f |
| 8565 | Copyright information: |
| 8566 | |
| 8567 | Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| 8568 | |
| 8569 | Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies |
| 8570 | of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the |
| 8571 | copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, |
| 8572 | thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn. |
| 8573 | |
| 8574 | Permission is granted to distribute modified versions |
| 8575 | of this document, or of portions of it, |
| 8576 | under the above conditions, provided also that they |
| 8577 | carry prominent notices stating who last changed them. |
| 8578 | |
| 8579 | \f |
| 8580 | Local variables: |
| 8581 | mode: outline |
| 8582 | paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$" |
| 8583 | end: |