1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since the stable branch:
9 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
11 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
13 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
14 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
16 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
18 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
19 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** pretty-print has more options.
25 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
26 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
27 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
29 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
31 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
32 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
33 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
35 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
37 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
38 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
40 ** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
42 Use `substring-move!' instead.
44 * Changes to the C interface
46 ** New function: scm_str2string
48 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
51 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
53 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
54 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
55 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
56 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
57 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
59 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
60 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
61 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
63 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
64 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
66 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
68 Use the new functions scm_alloc_cell and scm_alloc_double_cell
69 instead. The old macros had problems because with them allocation and
70 initialization was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half
71 initialized cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
72 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
74 Changes since Guile 1.4:
76 * Changes to the distribution
78 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
80 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
82 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
83 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
84 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
85 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
86 indicate major changes in Guile.
88 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
89 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
90 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
91 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
93 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
94 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
95 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
96 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
99 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
101 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
103 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
104 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
106 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
108 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
109 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
110 See INSTALL and README for more information.
112 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
114 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
115 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
116 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
119 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
121 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
124 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
126 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
127 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
129 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
131 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
132 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
135 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
137 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
140 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
143 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
145 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
147 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
148 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
149 open-output-string, get-output-string.
151 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
153 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
155 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
158 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
160 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
162 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
164 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
165 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
166 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
168 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
170 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
172 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
173 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
182 See README there for more info.
184 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
185 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
188 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
190 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
192 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
194 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
195 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
196 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
198 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
200 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
201 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
202 to be named `and-let*', of course.
204 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
205 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
207 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
212 (oop goops active-slot)
213 (oop goops composite-slot)
215 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
216 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
217 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
219 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
221 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
222 in the default environment:
224 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
225 %read-line write-line
227 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
228 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
230 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
232 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
235 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
236 can be used for similar functionality.
238 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
240 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
241 it defines two procedures:
243 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
245 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
246 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
247 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
250 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
252 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
253 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
254 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
257 ** New module (ice-9 match)
259 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
260 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
262 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
264 for complete documentation.
266 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
268 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
269 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
270 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
271 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
273 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
274 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
278 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
279 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
280 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
283 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
286 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
287 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
289 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
290 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
293 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
296 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
298 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
300 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
302 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
304 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
305 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
306 Scheme programs easier.
308 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
309 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
310 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
311 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
312 `cond-expand' when using this option.
315 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
316 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
318 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
321 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
323 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
324 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
325 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
328 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
330 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
332 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
333 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
334 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
335 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
336 was also ASCII, for example.
338 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
340 tag - no replacement.
341 fseek - replaced by seek.
342 list* - replaced by cons*.
344 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
348 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
349 (define m (make-safe-module))
350 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
351 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
352 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
354 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
356 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
357 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
358 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
360 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
362 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
363 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
364 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
365 from the issues related to the module system.
367 *** New function: load-extension
369 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
371 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
373 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
374 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
375 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
377 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
379 This function registers a initialization function for use by
380 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
381 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
382 support dynamic linking).
384 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
386 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
387 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
388 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
389 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
392 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
393 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
394 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
395 library and initialize it explicitely.
397 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
398 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
400 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
402 (define-module (foo bar))
404 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
406 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
408 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
409 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
411 (scheme-report-environment 5)
413 (interaction-environment)
419 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
421 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
422 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
423 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
424 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
426 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
427 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
428 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
429 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
430 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
431 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
432 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
433 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
434 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
435 one eval to the next.
437 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
438 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
439 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
440 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
441 subforms are at the top-level as well.
443 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
444 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
445 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
446 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
447 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
448 used in a lexical environment.
450 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
451 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
452 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
453 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
454 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
455 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
457 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
459 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
460 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
461 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
462 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
463 new facilities: selection and renaming.
465 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
466 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
467 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
469 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
470 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
472 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
473 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
474 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
477 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
479 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
480 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
481 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
482 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
485 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
486 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
487 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
488 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
491 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
492 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
494 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
495 ;; and all four by upcasing.
496 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
497 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
498 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
500 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
503 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
504 :renamer upcase-symbol))
506 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
507 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
508 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
510 See manual for more info.
512 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
514 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
515 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
516 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
518 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
520 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
521 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
522 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
524 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
525 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
526 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
527 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
529 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
531 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
532 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
534 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
535 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
536 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
537 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
538 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
541 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
542 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
543 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
544 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
545 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
546 successful and #f if it wasn't.
548 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
549 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
550 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
551 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
552 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
554 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
555 objects are usually permanent.
557 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
558 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
560 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
562 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
563 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
566 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
570 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
575 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
577 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
578 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
579 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
580 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
582 ** New function `make-object-property'
584 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
585 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
589 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
590 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
594 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
595 source properties eventually.
597 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
599 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
600 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
601 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
603 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
604 will be removed in the next release.
606 ** New define-module option: pure
608 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
613 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
616 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
618 Export names NAME1 ...
620 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
621 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
627 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
630 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
635 ** New function: object->string OBJ
637 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
639 ** New function: port? X
641 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
642 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
644 ** New function: file-port?
646 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
648 ** New function: port-for-each proc
650 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
651 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
652 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
653 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
654 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
656 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
658 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
659 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
660 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
661 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
662 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
665 ** New function: close-fdes fd
667 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
668 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
669 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
670 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
673 ** New function: crypt password salt
675 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
678 ** New function: chroot path
680 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
682 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
684 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
687 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
689 Get or set the priority of the running process.
691 ** New function: getpass prompt
693 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
696 ** New function: flock file operation
698 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
700 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
702 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
705 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
707 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
708 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
709 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
710 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
711 of the temporary file.
713 ** New function: open-input-string string
715 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
716 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
717 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
719 ** New function: open-output-string
721 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
722 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
724 ** New function: get-output-string
726 Return the contents of an output string port.
728 ** New function: identity
732 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
733 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
735 ** New function: inet-pton family address
737 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
738 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
739 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
742 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
743 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
745 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
747 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
748 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
749 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
752 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
753 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
754 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
758 Use `identity' instead.
764 ** Deprecated: return-it
768 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
770 Use `string-length' instead.
774 Use `logior' instead.
776 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
778 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
779 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
780 port-for-each is more flexible.
782 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
783 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
784 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
786 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
788 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
790 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
792 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
794 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
796 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
797 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
799 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
800 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
802 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
803 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
805 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
807 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
808 Removed function: builtin-bindings
810 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
811 Use module system operations for all variables.
813 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
815 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
818 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
820 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
821 The following bugs have been fixed:
823 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
824 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
827 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
828 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
829 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
831 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
832 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
834 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
835 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
838 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
839 The expansion used to be like so:
841 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
843 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
845 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
847 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
848 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
850 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
852 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
853 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
854 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
858 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
859 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
861 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
866 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
867 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
869 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
870 and `d', other keywords allowed.
871 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
873 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
876 * Changes to the C interface
878 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
880 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
881 with "_t". What a concept.
883 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
885 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
887 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
891 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
892 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
894 *** C Functions removed
896 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
897 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
898 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
899 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
900 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
901 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
902 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
904 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
906 Use scm_mem2string instead.
908 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
910 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
912 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
913 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
915 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
917 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
920 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
922 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
924 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
926 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
930 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
932 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
934 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
939 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
941 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
943 Create a list of the given number of elements.
945 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
947 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
948 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
950 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
952 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
954 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
955 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
956 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
958 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
960 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
962 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
963 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
964 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
967 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
969 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
971 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
972 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
974 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
976 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
977 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
978 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
979 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
981 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
982 scm_primitive_property_ref
983 scm_primitive_property_set_x
984 scm_primitive_property_del_x
986 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
987 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
989 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
991 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
992 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
993 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
994 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
996 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
998 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
999 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1000 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1001 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1002 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1003 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1004 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1006 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1007 scm_remember_upto_here
1009 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1011 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1013 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1014 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1016 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1018 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1020 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1022 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1024 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1026 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1027 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1028 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1029 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1030 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1031 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1033 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1035 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1037 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1038 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1039 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1041 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1043 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1044 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1045 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1047 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1049 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1050 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1053 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1056 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1057 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1060 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1062 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1064 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1066 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1068 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1070 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1072 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1073 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1074 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1075 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1076 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1077 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1078 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1079 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1080 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1081 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1082 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1083 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1084 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1085 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1086 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1088 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1089 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1090 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1091 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1092 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1093 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1094 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1095 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1096 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1097 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1098 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1099 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1100 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1101 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1102 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1103 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1104 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1105 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1106 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1107 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1108 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1109 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1110 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1111 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1112 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1113 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1114 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1115 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1116 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1118 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1120 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1122 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1123 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1125 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1127 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1129 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1131 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1133 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1135 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1137 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1139 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1141 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1144 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1145 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1147 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1149 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1151 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1153 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1155 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1157 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1159 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1161 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1164 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1166 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1168 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1170 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1171 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1173 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1174 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1176 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1178 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1179 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1180 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1182 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
1184 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
1186 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
1187 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
1189 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
1190 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
1191 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
1192 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
1194 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
1195 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
1196 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
1198 Use the new ones from above instead.
1200 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
1202 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
1203 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
1204 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
1206 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
1207 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
1209 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
1210 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
1213 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
1214 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
1216 Use the new functions instead.
1218 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
1221 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
1223 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
1225 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
1228 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
1230 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
1233 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
1235 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
1238 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
1239 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
1240 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
1242 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
1244 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
1245 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
1247 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
1248 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
1249 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
1250 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
1253 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
1255 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
1256 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
1257 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
1258 inexact for an exact.
1260 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
1261 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
1262 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
1265 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
1266 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
1267 accept an inexact argument.
1269 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
1270 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
1272 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
1275 ** New number validation macros:
1276 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
1280 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
1282 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
1283 scm_unprotect_object.
1285 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
1287 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
1289 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
1292 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
1294 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
1298 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
1300 * Changes to the distribution
1302 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
1304 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
1305 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
1306 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
1307 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
1308 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
1309 obtain these programs.
1310 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
1311 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
1313 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
1314 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
1315 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
1316 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
1317 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
1319 However, this approach means that minor differences between
1320 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
1321 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
1322 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
1326 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
1329 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
1330 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
1331 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
1332 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
1334 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
1336 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
1338 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
1339 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
1341 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
1342 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
1344 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
1345 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1347 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1348 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1349 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1350 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1352 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1354 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1358 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1359 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1361 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1363 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1364 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1366 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1367 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1368 number of objects of that kind.
1370 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1372 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1373 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1374 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1375 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1376 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1378 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1380 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1382 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1384 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1387 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1389 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1391 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1393 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1395 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1397 ** New command line option --debug
1399 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1401 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1403 ** New help facility
1405 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1406 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1407 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1408 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1409 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1410 (help) gives this text
1412 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1413 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1415 Examples: (help help)
1417 (help "output-string")
1419 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1421 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1423 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1424 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1427 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1428 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1429 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1432 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1433 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1434 use absolute filenames when possible.
1436 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1437 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1438 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1441 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1443 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1444 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1445 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1446 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1448 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1450 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1452 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1453 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1454 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1456 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1457 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1458 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1460 (read-enable 'positions)
1461 (debug-enable 'debug)
1463 ** Backtraces in scripts
1465 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1469 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1471 at the top of the script.
1473 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1474 The second enables backtraces.)
1476 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1478 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1479 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1480 substantially faster than before.
1482 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1483 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1485 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1486 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1488 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1490 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1491 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1492 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1494 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1495 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1496 when this hook is run in the future.
1498 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1499 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1501 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1503 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1504 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1507 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1508 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1509 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1511 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1512 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1514 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1515 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1517 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1518 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1519 in order not to need further allocation.)
1521 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1524 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1525 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1526 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1527 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1529 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1531 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1534 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1536 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1539 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1540 GC in percent of total heap size
1543 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1544 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1546 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1548 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1549 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1551 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1553 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1554 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1556 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1558 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1559 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1563 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1564 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1566 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1568 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1570 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1572 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1574 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1576 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1577 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1579 (simple-format port message . args)
1580 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1581 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1582 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1583 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1584 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1585 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1586 Does not add a trailing newline."
1588 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1590 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1591 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1593 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1594 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1596 ** Deprecated: list*
1598 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1600 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1602 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1603 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1605 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1606 is returned as result.
1608 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1610 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1612 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1614 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1615 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1618 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1620 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1622 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1623 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1625 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1627 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1629 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1631 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1633 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1635 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1637 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1639 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1640 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1641 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1643 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1646 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1648 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1649 the readability of argument checking.
1651 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1653 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1655 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1657 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1658 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1659 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1660 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1661 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1662 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1663 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1665 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1667 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1669 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1670 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1672 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1674 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1675 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1678 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1680 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1681 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1682 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1684 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1685 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1686 implementation with gmp in the future.
1688 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1689 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1690 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1692 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1693 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1694 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1695 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1696 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1697 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1698 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1700 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1701 scm_end_input (object);
1702 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1703 ptob->flush (object);
1705 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1706 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1709 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1711 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1713 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1714 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1715 removed in a future version.
1717 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1719 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1720 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1721 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1722 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1724 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1725 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1727 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1730 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1732 in your configure.in.
1734 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1739 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1745 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1747 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1751 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1752 (define make-message string-append)
1754 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1756 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1760 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1765 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1769 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1771 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1772 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1774 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1776 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1777 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1778 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1779 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1780 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1781 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1783 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1784 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1785 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1787 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1788 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1789 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1792 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1793 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1794 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1795 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1796 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1798 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1799 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1800 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1801 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1802 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1803 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1804 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1806 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1808 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1809 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1810 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1812 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1813 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1814 KEY in the calling thread.
1816 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1817 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1818 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1819 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1820 associated with the key.
1822 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1824 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1825 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1827 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1829 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1830 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1831 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1833 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1835 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1836 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1838 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1840 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1842 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1843 returned is undefined.
1845 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1846 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1847 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1849 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1850 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1851 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1853 ** New C level GC hooks
1855 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1857 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1860 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1861 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1862 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1864 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1865 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1866 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1868 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1869 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1872 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1874 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1875 allocation parameters
1877 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1878 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1879 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1883 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1884 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1885 scm_default_max_segment_size
1887 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1889 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1890 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1892 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1894 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1895 object and count on the object being protected until
1896 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1898 The functions also have better time complexity.
1900 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1901 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1902 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1903 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1904 are no longer needed.
1906 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1908 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1909 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1910 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1911 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1913 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1915 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1917 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1919 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1920 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1921 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1922 until this issue has been settled.
1924 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1926 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1928 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1931 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1933 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1935 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1936 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1937 descriptors were checked.
1939 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1940 atomically written to a pipe.
1942 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1943 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1944 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1945 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1946 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1947 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1948 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1951 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1952 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1953 is changed without calling tzset.
1955 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1957 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1958 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1959 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1961 (define write-network-long
1962 (lambda (value port)
1963 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1964 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1965 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1967 (define read-network-long
1969 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1970 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1971 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1973 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1974 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1976 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1977 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1978 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1979 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1981 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1982 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1983 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1984 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1988 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1990 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1994 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1995 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1996 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2002 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2003 for a description of available commands.
2005 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2006 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2007 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2009 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2011 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2012 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2014 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2016 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2018 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2019 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2020 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2021 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2022 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2023 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2026 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2028 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2029 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2030 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2031 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2033 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2034 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2036 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2038 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2040 ** Readline support has changed again.
2042 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2043 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2044 to activate readline is now
2046 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2049 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2051 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2052 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2053 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2056 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2057 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2058 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2061 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2062 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2063 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2064 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2065 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2066 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2068 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2069 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2071 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2073 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2074 object it receives is the same string passed to
2075 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2076 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2077 string, not the suffix.
2079 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2080 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2081 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2083 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2085 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2086 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2087 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2088 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2091 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2093 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2095 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2096 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2097 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2098 appear from left to right.
2100 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2103 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2105 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2106 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2108 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2112 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2114 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2116 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2118 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2119 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2120 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2122 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2124 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2126 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2128 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2131 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2133 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2134 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2135 mentioning it here anyway.
2137 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2139 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2140 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2141 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2142 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2145 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2147 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2149 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2151 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2152 otherwise return #f.
2154 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2156 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2157 returned by `opendir'.
2159 ** New function: using-readline?
2161 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2163 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2165 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2166 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2168 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2170 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2172 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2173 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2174 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2176 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2178 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2179 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2181 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2183 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2184 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2185 documentation slots are not yet used.
2187 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
2189 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
2190 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
2191 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
2196 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
2197 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
2198 (string-append x y))
2200 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
2201 can also be used for concatenating strings.
2203 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
2204 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
2205 be made in a clean way.]
2207 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
2209 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2211 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2213 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
2214 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
2216 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2218 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
2220 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2222 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2224 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
2225 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
2226 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
2227 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
2230 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2232 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
2234 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2236 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2238 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
2239 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
2241 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2243 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
2245 Evaluates the body of a special form.
2247 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
2249 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
2250 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
2251 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
2252 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
2253 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
2254 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
2256 This should not make any difference for most users.
2258 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
2260 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
2261 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
2263 *** New functions for applying generic functions
2265 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
2266 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
2267 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
2268 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
2269 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
2271 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
2273 It is now replaced by:
2275 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
2277 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2278 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2280 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2282 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
2283 This might change when we get the new module system.
2285 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
2289 Changes since Guile 1.3:
2291 * Changes to mailing lists
2293 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
2295 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
2298 * Changes to the distribution
2300 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
2302 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
2303 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
2304 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
2305 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
2306 you explicitly specify it.
2308 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
2309 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
2310 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
2311 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
2312 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
2315 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
2316 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
2317 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
2318 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
2320 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
2321 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
2322 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
2325 You can activate the readline support by issuing
2327 (use-modules (readline-activator))
2330 from your ".guile" file, for example.
2332 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2334 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
2335 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
2336 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
2337 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
2339 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
2340 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
2343 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2345 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2346 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2347 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2348 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2349 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2350 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2351 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2352 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2364 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2365 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2366 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2367 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2368 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2373 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2374 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2382 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2387 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2388 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2391 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2392 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2393 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2394 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2396 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2398 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2400 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2401 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2403 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2405 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2407 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2408 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2410 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2413 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2415 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2417 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2419 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2421 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2423 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2425 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2426 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2427 when the hook was created.
2429 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2430 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2431 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2432 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2433 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2434 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2435 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2436 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2437 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2439 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2440 the dlopen family of functions.
2442 ** New function `provided?'
2444 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2445 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2446 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2447 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2449 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2451 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2452 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2453 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2454 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2457 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2458 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2459 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2460 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2462 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2463 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2464 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2467 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2468 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2469 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2470 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2471 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2472 but with the flag set.
2474 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2476 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2477 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2479 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2480 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2481 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2482 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2483 available Scheme format implementations.
2485 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2486 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2487 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2488 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2489 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2490 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2491 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2492 output is to the current error port if available by the
2493 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2496 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2497 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2498 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2499 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2500 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2501 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2502 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2503 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2505 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2506 be executed at a time.
2509 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2511 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2512 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2513 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2515 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2516 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2517 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2518 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2519 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2520 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2521 general form of a directive is:
2523 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2525 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2527 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2529 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2530 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2531 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2534 Any (print as `display' does).
2538 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2542 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2546 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2552 print number sign always.
2555 print comma separated.
2557 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2563 print number sign always.
2566 print comma separated.
2568 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2574 print number sign always.
2577 print comma separated.
2579 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2585 print number sign always.
2588 print comma separated.
2590 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2595 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2599 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2602 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2605 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2608 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2613 prints `y' and `ies'.
2616 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2619 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2624 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2628 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2631 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2632 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2634 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2637 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2638 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2640 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2643 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2645 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2647 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2650 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2652 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2654 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2657 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2660 The sign appears before the padding.
2668 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2670 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2675 print N page separators.
2685 newline is ignored, white space left.
2688 newline is left, white space ignored.
2693 relative tabulation.
2699 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2701 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2704 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2706 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2709 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2712 converts by `string-upcase'.
2715 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2717 jumps N arguments forward.
2720 jumps 1 argument backward.
2723 jumps N arguments backward.
2726 jumps to the 0th argument.
2729 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2731 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2732 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2734 take argument from N.
2737 true test conditional.
2740 if-else-then conditional.
2746 default clause follows.
2749 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2751 at most N iterations.
2754 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2757 args from the rest of arguments.
2760 args from the rest args (lists).
2771 aborts if N <= M <= K
2773 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2776 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2779 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2785 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2787 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2789 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2790 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2791 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2792 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2793 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2794 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2798 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2802 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2808 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2811 Print a `#\space' character
2813 print N `#\space' characters.
2816 Print a `#\tab' character
2818 print N `#\tab' characters.
2821 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2822 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2823 must be a positive decimal number.
2826 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2827 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2828 be processed by `read'.
2831 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2832 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2833 be processed by `read'.
2836 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2839 prints format version.
2842 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2843 and format it accordingly.
2845 *** Configuration Variables
2847 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2848 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2849 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2850 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2853 format:symbol-case-conv
2854 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2855 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2856 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2857 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2858 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2860 format:iobj-case-conv
2861 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2862 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2865 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2868 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2874 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2875 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2876 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2877 `format' padding style.
2880 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2881 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2882 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2883 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2887 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2888 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2889 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2892 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2893 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2894 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2895 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2896 parameters or modifiers)).
2899 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2901 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2903 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2904 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2906 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2907 string-downcase! functions.
2909 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2910 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2912 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2915 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2918 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2919 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2921 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2923 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2924 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2926 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2927 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2928 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2929 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2930 would if STRING were input.
2932 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2934 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2935 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2936 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2937 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2940 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2942 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2943 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2946 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2948 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2949 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2951 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2952 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2954 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2955 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2956 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2957 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2959 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2960 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2962 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2963 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2964 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2966 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2967 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2969 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2970 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2971 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2972 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2973 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2975 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2976 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2977 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2978 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2979 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2980 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2982 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2983 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2984 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2987 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2988 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2989 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2990 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2991 the following grammar:
2992 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2993 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2994 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2995 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2996 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2997 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2998 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2999 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3000 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3001 last option in its combination)
3003 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3004 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3005 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3006 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3008 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3009 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3010 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3012 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3013 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3014 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3016 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3017 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3018 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3019 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3020 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3021 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3022 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3023 ordinary argument strings.
3025 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3026 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3027 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3028 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3030 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3031 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3033 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3034 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3035 - a required option is omitted
3036 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3037 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3038 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3039 - an option predicate fails
3044 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3047 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3048 (verbose (required? #f)
3051 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3052 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3053 (predicate ,string?))))
3055 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3056 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3058 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3059 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3060 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3061 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3064 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3066 It will be removed in a few releases.
3068 ** New syntax: lambda*
3069 ** New syntax: define*
3070 ** New syntax: define*-public
3071 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3072 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3073 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3075 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3076 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3077 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3078 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3079 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3081 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3082 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3083 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3085 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3087 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3088 and examples for `lambda*':
3091 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3093 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3094 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3095 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3096 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3097 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3098 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3099 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3100 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3102 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3104 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3105 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3106 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3107 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3109 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3110 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3111 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3112 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3113 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3114 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3115 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3116 and until the procedure is called.
3118 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3120 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3121 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3122 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3123 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3124 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3125 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3126 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3127 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3128 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3129 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3131 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3132 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3133 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3134 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3137 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3139 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3140 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3141 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3142 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3144 ** New syntax: and-let*
3145 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3147 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3148 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3149 (<variable> <expression>)
3152 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3153 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3154 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3157 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3158 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3159 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3160 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3161 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3162 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3163 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3165 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3166 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3167 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3168 shadow earlier bindings.
3170 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3172 ** New sorting functions
3174 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3175 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3176 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3177 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3179 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3180 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3183 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3184 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3185 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3187 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
3188 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
3189 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
3190 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
3192 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3193 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
3194 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
3195 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
3196 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
3199 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3200 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
3201 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
3202 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
3203 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
3204 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
3206 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
3207 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
3208 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
3210 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3211 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
3212 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
3215 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
3216 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
3217 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
3219 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
3220 Added for compatibility with scsh.
3222 ** New built-in random number support
3224 *** New function: random N [STATE]
3225 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
3226 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
3227 returned have a uniform distribution.
3229 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
3230 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
3231 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
3232 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
3233 effect of the `random' operation.
3235 *** New variable: *random-state*
3236 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
3237 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
3238 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
3239 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
3240 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
3243 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
3244 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3245 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3246 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
3247 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
3249 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
3250 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3251 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3252 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
3253 initialized using SEED.
3255 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
3256 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
3257 range between 0 and 1.
3259 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3260 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
3261 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
3262 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
3263 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
3264 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
3265 or a uniform vector of doubles.
3267 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3268 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
3269 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
3270 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
3271 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
3272 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3274 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
3275 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
3276 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
3277 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
3279 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
3280 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
3281 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
3282 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3284 *** New function: random:exp STATE
3285 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
3286 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
3288 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
3290 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
3293 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
3294 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
3297 ** New function: make-guardian
3298 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
3299 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
3300 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
3301 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
3302 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
3304 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
3305 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
3306 one object if at all.
3308 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
3309 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
3310 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
3312 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
3313 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
3314 read again in last-in first-out order.
3316 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
3317 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
3319 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
3321 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
3322 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
3323 file position is used.
3325 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
3326 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
3327 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
3329 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
3330 redefined using seek.
3332 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
3333 size is not supplied.
3335 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
3336 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
3338 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
3339 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
3341 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
3343 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
3344 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
3345 and returns the contents as a single string.
3347 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3348 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3349 lists in serial order.
3351 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3352 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3353 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3355 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3356 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3357 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3358 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3360 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3361 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3362 and #f if an error occured.
3364 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3366 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3367 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3368 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3369 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3371 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3373 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3376 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3378 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3381 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3385 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3386 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3388 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3389 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3393 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3395 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3397 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3398 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3400 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3402 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3403 might change when we get the new module system.
3405 ** The smob interface
3407 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3408 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3410 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3412 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3416 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3417 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3418 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3419 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3420 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3421 will be freed by the default free function.
3423 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3424 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3425 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3426 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3428 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3429 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3430 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3431 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3433 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3435 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3436 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3440 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3441 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3442 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3444 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3445 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3446 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3447 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3449 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3450 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3451 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3453 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3454 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3455 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3456 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3458 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3459 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3460 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3462 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3466 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3468 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3469 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3470 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3472 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3473 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3474 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3476 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3477 a string port's buffer.
3479 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3480 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3481 function pointers which together define the current random number
3482 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3483 number library functions.
3485 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3488 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3489 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3492 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3493 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3495 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3496 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3498 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3499 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3502 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3503 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3504 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3505 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3507 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3508 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3509 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3510 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3511 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3512 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3513 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3515 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3516 by libguile and the application.
3518 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3519 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3520 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3521 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3523 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3524 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3526 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3527 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3528 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3530 ** Random number library functions
3531 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3532 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3533 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3535 The default random state is stored in:
3537 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3538 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3539 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3544 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3546 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3547 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3548 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3549 isn't a random state.
3551 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3552 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3554 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3555 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3556 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3557 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3559 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3560 Return 32 random bits.
3562 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3563 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3565 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3566 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3568 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3569 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3571 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3572 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3574 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3575 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3576 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3580 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3582 * Changes to the distribution
3584 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3585 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3586 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3589 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3590 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3591 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3593 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3594 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3595 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3596 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3599 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3600 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3601 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3603 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3605 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3607 *** Function: batch-mode?
3609 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3612 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3614 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3615 case has not been implemented.
3617 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3618 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3619 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3622 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3623 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3625 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3627 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3629 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3631 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3632 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3635 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3636 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3637 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3638 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3641 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3643 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3644 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3645 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3646 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3647 find those libraries.
3649 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3650 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3653 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3655 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3656 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3657 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3658 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3660 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3661 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3662 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3666 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3668 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3669 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3670 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3673 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3674 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3675 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3676 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3678 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3679 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3682 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3683 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3684 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3685 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3686 compiler where to find the libraries.
3688 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3689 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3690 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3692 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3693 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3694 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3695 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3696 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3700 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3702 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3703 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3704 internationalization support.
3706 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3707 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3708 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3709 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3710 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3712 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3713 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3714 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3715 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3716 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3718 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3719 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3720 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3721 any GNU mirror site.
3723 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3725 ** New function: add-history STRING
3726 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3727 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3728 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3730 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3732 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3733 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3734 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3737 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3738 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3739 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3741 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3743 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3746 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3747 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3750 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3751 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3752 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3753 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3754 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3755 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3757 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3758 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3759 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3760 of the form mentioned above.
3762 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3763 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3764 returned in the special `rest' list.
3766 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3767 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3769 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3771 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3773 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3775 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3776 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3777 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3778 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3779 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3780 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3781 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3782 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3785 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3787 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3789 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3790 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3793 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3794 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3795 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3799 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3800 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3801 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3802 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3803 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3804 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3805 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3806 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3809 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3811 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3812 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3813 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3815 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3817 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3818 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3820 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3821 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3822 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3824 Why do we have this function?
3825 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3826 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3827 primitive, and display it differently, and
3828 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3829 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3832 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3833 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3836 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3837 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3838 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3839 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3841 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3842 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3845 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3846 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3848 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3850 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3851 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3852 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3853 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3854 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3855 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3856 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3859 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3861 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3862 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3864 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3865 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3866 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3867 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3868 properly continue the print chain.
3870 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3871 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3872 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3873 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3874 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3875 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3876 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3877 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3879 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3880 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3881 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3882 safest to not check for these pairs.
3884 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3885 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3886 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3887 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3889 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3891 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3892 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3894 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3896 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3898 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3899 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3900 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3902 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3903 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3904 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3906 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3907 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3908 the following functions and macros:
3910 Function: make-fluid
3912 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3913 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3914 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3915 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3916 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3918 Function: fluid? OBJ
3920 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3922 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3923 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3925 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3926 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3928 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3930 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3931 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3932 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3933 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3934 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3935 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3936 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3938 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3940 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3941 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3942 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3943 should evaluate to a fluid.
3945 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3947 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3948 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3949 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3950 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3951 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3953 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3956 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3958 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3960 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3962 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3965 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3966 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3967 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3968 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3969 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3972 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3973 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3974 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3976 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3977 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3978 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3980 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3981 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3982 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3983 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3985 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3986 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3987 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3988 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3990 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3991 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3992 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3993 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3995 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3996 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3997 their revealed counts set to zero.
3999 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4000 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4002 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4003 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4005 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4006 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4008 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4009 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4010 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4012 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4013 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4014 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4016 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4017 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4018 default environment inherited by child processes.
4020 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4021 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4022 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4024 The return value is unspecified.
4026 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4027 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4028 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4029 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4030 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4032 The return value is unspecified.
4034 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4035 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4043 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4044 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4047 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4050 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4051 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4052 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4054 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4055 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4056 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4057 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4060 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4061 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4063 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4064 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4065 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4066 the `environ' procedure.
4068 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4069 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4072 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4073 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4075 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4076 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4077 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4078 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4080 *** procedure: times
4081 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4082 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4083 return a selected component:
4086 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4090 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4093 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4097 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4098 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4102 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4103 terminated child processes.
4105 ** Removed: list-length
4106 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4107 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4109 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4111 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4113 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4115 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4116 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4117 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4118 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4120 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4121 extra complexity it introduces.
4123 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4124 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4126 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4127 variable to any non-empty value.
4129 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4130 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4132 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4134 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4135 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4137 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4139 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4140 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4142 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4144 ** vector handling routines
4146 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4147 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4148 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4149 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4150 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4152 ** pair and list routines
4154 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4157 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4159 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4162 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4164 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4166 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4167 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4168 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4169 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4170 site-specific initialization code.
4172 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4173 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4174 initialization processes.
4176 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4177 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4178 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4179 initialized properly.
4181 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4182 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4183 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4185 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4186 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4187 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
4188 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
4189 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
4191 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
4193 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
4194 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
4195 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
4196 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
4197 objects the smob refers to get marked.
4199 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
4200 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
4201 which look like this:
4204 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
4206 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
4207 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
4210 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
4211 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
4214 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
4216 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
4217 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
4218 you will need to change your functions slightly.
4220 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
4221 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
4222 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
4223 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
4224 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
4226 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
4227 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
4229 int (*free) (SCM port);
4230 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
4231 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
4232 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
4236 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
4237 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
4238 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
4240 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
4243 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
4244 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
4245 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
4247 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
4248 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
4249 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
4252 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
4256 struct timeval *timeout);
4258 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
4259 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
4260 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
4261 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
4262 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
4263 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
4265 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
4266 scm_catch_body_t body,
4268 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4271 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
4272 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
4273 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
4274 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
4275 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
4276 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
4278 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
4280 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4283 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
4284 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
4285 spawning threads from application C code.
4287 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
4288 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
4289 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
4290 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
4291 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
4292 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
4294 ** Removed functions:
4296 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
4297 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
4299 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
4301 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
4302 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
4304 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
4306 ** mbstrings are now removed
4308 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
4309 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
4311 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
4313 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
4314 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
4315 their new names and arguments:
4317 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
4318 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
4319 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
4320 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
4323 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
4325 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
4327 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
4330 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
4332 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
4333 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
4334 pass a #f arg to catch.
4336 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
4338 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
4339 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
4342 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
4343 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
4344 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
4345 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4346 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4347 reclaim its storage.
4349 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4350 worrying that some other function you call will call
4351 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4352 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4353 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4354 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4357 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4359 * Changes to the distribution
4361 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4362 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4365 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4366 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4368 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4369 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4371 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4373 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4374 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4375 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4377 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4379 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4380 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4381 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4382 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4383 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4384 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4386 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4387 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4388 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4391 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4392 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4393 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4394 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4396 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4397 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4398 libraries to your link command:
4400 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4401 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4402 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4403 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4405 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4406 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4407 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4409 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4411 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4412 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4415 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4417 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4418 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4419 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4420 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4421 searched is system dependent.
4423 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4425 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4427 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4429 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4430 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4432 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4434 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4435 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4436 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4437 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4438 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4441 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4443 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4444 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4445 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4446 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4447 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4449 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4451 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4452 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4454 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4456 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4457 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4458 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4461 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4463 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4464 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4465 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4466 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4468 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4469 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4471 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4473 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4474 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4476 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4478 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4479 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4487 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4489 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4490 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4491 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4492 a more informative way.
4494 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4495 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4496 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4497 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4498 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4499 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4501 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4502 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4505 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4506 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4507 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4510 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4511 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4512 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4513 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4514 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4515 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4517 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4518 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4519 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4520 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4523 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4524 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4525 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4526 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4527 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4528 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4530 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4531 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4532 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4533 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4534 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4536 *** regexp functions
4538 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4539 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4540 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4542 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4543 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4544 with SCSH regular expressions.
4546 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4547 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4548 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4549 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4551 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4552 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4553 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4554 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4556 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4557 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4558 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4559 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4560 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4561 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4563 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4564 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4565 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4566 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4567 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4569 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4571 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4572 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4573 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4574 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4576 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4577 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4578 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4580 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4581 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4583 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4586 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4587 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4588 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4590 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4591 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4592 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4594 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4595 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4596 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4597 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4598 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4601 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4603 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4604 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4605 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4606 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4607 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4608 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4610 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4611 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4612 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4614 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4615 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4618 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4619 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4621 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4622 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4623 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4624 may be one of the following arguments:
4626 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4628 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4630 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4631 the regexp match is written.
4633 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4634 following the regexp match is written.
4636 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4637 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4640 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4641 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4642 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4643 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4644 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4645 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4647 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4650 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4651 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4652 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4653 written out to PORT.
4655 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4656 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4657 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4658 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4659 will return after processing a single match.
4661 *** Match Structures
4663 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4664 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4665 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4666 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4667 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4668 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4671 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4672 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4673 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4674 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4675 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4677 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4678 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4679 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4681 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4682 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4683 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4684 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4685 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4687 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4688 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4690 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4691 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4693 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4694 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4696 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4697 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4699 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4700 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4701 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4702 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4704 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4705 Return the original TARGET string.
4707 *** Backslash Escapes
4709 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4710 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4711 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4712 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4713 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4714 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4716 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4717 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4718 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4719 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4720 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4721 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4722 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4723 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4725 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4726 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4727 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4728 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4729 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4730 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4731 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4733 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4734 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4735 return the resulting string.
4737 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4738 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4739 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4740 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4741 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4742 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4743 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4744 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4745 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4746 translated to the single character `*'.
4748 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4749 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4750 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4751 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4752 consecutive backslashes:
4754 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4756 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4757 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4758 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4760 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4761 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4762 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4763 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4764 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4765 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4767 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4769 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4770 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4771 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4772 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4773 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4774 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4775 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4776 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4777 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4778 cumbersome escape syntax.
4780 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4782 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4784 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4786 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4789 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4791 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4793 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4796 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4797 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4798 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4799 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4800 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4802 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4803 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4804 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4805 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4806 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4807 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4808 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4811 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4812 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4813 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4816 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4817 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4819 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4820 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4821 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4822 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4823 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4824 installed, you can say:
4826 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4829 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4831 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4832 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4833 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4834 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4835 new dynamic roots and threads.
4838 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4840 * Changes to the distribution.
4842 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4844 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4845 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4846 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4847 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4848 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4849 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4850 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4851 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4853 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4856 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4857 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4862 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4864 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4865 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4867 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4868 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4869 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4870 the (command-line) function.
4871 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4872 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4873 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4875 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4876 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4877 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4878 command line arguments
4879 -ds do -s script at this point
4880 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4881 -h, --help display this help and exit
4882 -v, --version display version information and exit
4883 \ read arguments from following script lines
4885 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4886 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4888 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4891 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4895 (main (command-line))
4897 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4899 ekko a speckled gecko
4901 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4902 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4903 following list of command-line arguments:
4905 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4907 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4908 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4909 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4910 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4911 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4913 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4915 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4917 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4918 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4921 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4922 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4923 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4924 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4926 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4927 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4928 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4929 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4931 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4935 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4939 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4941 ekko a speckled gecko
4943 Unix expands this into
4945 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4947 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4948 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4950 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4952 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4953 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4955 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4956 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4957 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4958 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4959 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4960 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4961 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4962 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4963 it only terminates the argument list.)
4964 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4965 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4966 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4967 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4968 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4969 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4970 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4971 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4973 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4975 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4976 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4977 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4978 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4979 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4981 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4982 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4983 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4985 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4987 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4988 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4989 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4990 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4993 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4994 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4995 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4997 * Changes to Scheme functions
4999 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5000 and disabled by default.
5002 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5003 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5004 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5005 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5007 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5009 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5011 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5012 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5014 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5015 (read-set! keywords #f)
5017 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5018 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5019 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5022 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5023 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5024 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5027 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5028 support for Scheme functions.
5030 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5031 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5032 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5033 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5036 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5037 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5038 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5041 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5042 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5043 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5046 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5047 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5048 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5049 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5050 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5051 display the result as a prompt.
5052 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5054 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5055 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5056 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5059 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5060 procedure of zero arguments.
5062 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5063 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5064 argument is bound in the current module.
5066 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5067 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5068 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5069 public bindings into the current module.
5071 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5072 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5074 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5075 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5077 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5078 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5080 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5081 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5083 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5084 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5086 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5087 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5088 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5089 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5090 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5092 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5093 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5094 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5095 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5097 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5100 ** Changes to I/O functions
5102 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5103 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5104 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5106 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5107 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5108 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5110 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5111 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5113 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5114 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5115 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5116 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5118 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5120 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5121 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5123 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5124 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5125 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5126 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5127 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5130 'trim omit delimiter from result
5131 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5132 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5133 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5135 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5137 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5138 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5140 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5141 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5142 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5143 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5144 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5146 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5147 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5148 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5150 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5151 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5152 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5153 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5155 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5156 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5158 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5159 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5161 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5163 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5164 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5165 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5166 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5167 a delimiting character.
5168 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5170 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5171 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5172 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5173 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5174 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5175 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5177 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5178 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5180 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5181 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5182 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5184 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5185 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5186 the array to read and write.
5188 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
5189 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
5192 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
5194 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
5197 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
5198 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
5199 Values for COMMAND are:
5201 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
5202 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
5203 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
5204 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
5205 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
5206 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
5207 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
5208 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
5210 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
5212 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
5213 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
5214 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
5215 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
5216 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
5217 corresponding return set will be the same.
5219 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
5222 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
5223 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
5224 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
5225 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
5226 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
5227 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
5228 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
5229 special file being created.
5231 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
5232 clashing with various SCSH forks.
5234 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
5235 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
5236 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
5237 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
5238 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
5239 and originating address.
5241 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
5242 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
5243 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
5245 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
5248 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
5249 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
5252 (status:exit-val STATUS)
5253 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
5254 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
5255 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
5256 this function returns #f.
5258 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
5259 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
5260 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
5263 (status:term-sig STATUS)
5264 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
5265 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
5268 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
5269 a valid STATUS value.
5271 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
5273 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
5274 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
5276 Component Accessor Setter
5277 ========================= ============ ============
5278 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
5279 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
5280 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
5281 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
5282 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
5283 year tm:year set-tm:year
5284 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
5285 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
5286 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
5287 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
5288 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
5290 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
5291 describing the host system:
5294 ============================================== ================
5295 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
5296 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
5297 release level of the operating system utsname:release
5298 version level of the operating system utsname:version
5299 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
5301 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
5302 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
5303 system's user database:
5306 ====================== =================
5307 user name passwd:name
5308 user password passwd:passwd
5311 real name passwd:gecos
5312 home directory passwd:dir
5313 shell program passwd:shell
5315 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
5316 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
5317 system's group database:
5320 ======================= ============
5321 group name group:name
5322 group password group:passwd
5324 group members group:mem
5326 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
5327 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
5331 ========================= ===============
5332 official name of host hostent:name
5333 alias list hostent:aliases
5334 host address type hostent:addrtype
5335 length of address hostent:length
5336 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
5338 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
5339 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
5343 ========================= ===============
5344 official name of net netent:name
5345 alias list netent:aliases
5346 net number type netent:addrtype
5347 net number netent:net
5349 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5350 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5354 ========================= ===============
5355 official protocol name protoent:name
5356 alias list protoent:aliases
5357 protocol number protoent:proto
5359 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5360 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5364 ========================= ===============
5365 official service name servent:name
5366 alias list servent:aliases
5367 port number servent:port
5368 protocol to use servent:proto
5370 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5371 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5374 ======================================== ===============
5375 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5376 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5377 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5378 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5380 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5381 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5382 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5384 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5385 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5387 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5388 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5390 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5391 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5393 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5395 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5397 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5398 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5399 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5401 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5402 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5403 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5404 return the remaining characters as a string.
5406 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5407 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5408 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5410 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5412 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5414 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5417 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5420 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5421 and returns the array
5423 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5424 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5425 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5427 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5429 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5430 symbol's value from C code:
5432 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5433 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5434 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5435 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5437 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5438 without assigning them a value.
5440 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5441 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5442 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5444 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5445 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5446 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5448 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5449 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5451 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5452 doesn't actually care about that.
5454 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5455 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5456 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5458 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5459 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5460 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5461 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5462 which we have just created and initialized.
5464 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5465 should one occur. We call it like this:
5466 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5468 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5469 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5470 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5471 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5472 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5473 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5476 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5477 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5478 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5479 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5480 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5481 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5482 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5485 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5486 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5487 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5488 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5489 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5492 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5493 scm_internal_catch, except:
5495 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5496 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5497 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5498 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5501 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5502 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5503 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5505 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5506 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5507 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5508 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5511 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5512 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5513 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5515 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5516 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5517 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5518 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5519 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5521 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5522 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5523 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5525 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5526 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5527 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5529 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5530 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5532 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5533 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5534 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5537 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5538 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5539 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5540 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5541 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5542 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5543 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5546 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5547 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5549 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5550 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5551 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5552 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5553 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5556 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5557 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5559 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5560 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5563 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5564 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5566 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5569 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5570 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5571 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5572 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5573 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5574 given the following arguments:
5576 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5578 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5580 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5582 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5585 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5586 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5587 command-line arguments.
5589 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5590 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5591 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5592 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5593 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5594 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5597 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5600 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5601 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5603 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5604 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5606 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5607 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5608 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5609 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5611 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5612 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5614 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5615 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5616 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5617 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5619 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5620 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5622 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5623 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5625 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5627 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5628 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5629 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5632 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5633 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5635 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5636 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5641 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5644 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5646 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5647 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5648 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5649 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5651 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5653 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5655 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5656 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5657 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5658 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5659 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5660 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5661 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5662 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5663 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5664 for more information.
5666 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5667 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5669 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5670 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5671 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5672 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5673 following two lines at the top of the file:
5675 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5678 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5679 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5680 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5682 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5684 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5686 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5689 (display (car args))
5690 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5692 (loop (cdr args)))))
5695 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5696 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5697 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5698 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5699 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5700 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5704 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5707 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5710 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5712 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5713 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5714 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5715 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5716 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5719 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5720 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5721 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5722 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5723 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5726 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5729 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5730 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5731 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5734 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5735 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5736 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5738 to see a backtrace, and
5739 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5740 to see them by default.
5744 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5746 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5748 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5749 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5752 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5753 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5754 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5755 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5758 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5759 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5760 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5761 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5762 functions which inspired them.
5764 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5765 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5769 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5771 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5773 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5774 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5777 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5778 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5779 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5781 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5782 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5783 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5784 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5785 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5787 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5789 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5790 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5791 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5794 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5797 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5799 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5800 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5801 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5802 above should serve their purposes.
5804 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5805 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5806 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5807 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5809 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5812 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5813 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5814 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5815 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5817 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5818 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5819 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5820 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5822 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5823 for the `read' function.
5826 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5827 to that of `integer?'.
5829 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5830 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5832 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5833 it simply returns the object's property list.
5835 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5836 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5837 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5838 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5840 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5842 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5845 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5847 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5848 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5850 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5852 void (*main_func) (),
5855 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5856 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5857 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5858 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5859 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5861 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5862 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5863 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5864 know which arguments have been processed.
5866 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5867 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5868 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5869 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5870 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5872 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5873 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5874 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5875 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5876 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5877 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5878 people from making that mistake.
5880 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5881 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5883 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5885 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5889 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5892 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5893 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5894 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5895 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5898 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5899 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5900 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5901 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5904 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5905 have been added to the Guile library.
5907 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5908 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5909 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5912 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5913 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5914 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5916 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5917 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5918 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5919 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5920 argument from the list.
5923 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5926 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5927 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5929 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5930 to a Scheme port object.
5932 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5933 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5938 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5940 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5941 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5942 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5943 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5944 code as a special datatype.
5946 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5947 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5948 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5949 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5950 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5953 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5954 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5955 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5956 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5957 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5959 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5962 Copyright information:
5964 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5966 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5967 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5968 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5969 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5971 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5972 of this document, or of portions of it,
5973 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5974 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5979 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"