README

   1 !!! This is not a Guile release; it is a source tree retrieved via
   2 anonymous CVS or as a nightly snapshot at some random time after the
   3 Guile 1.6 release.  If this were a Guile release, you would not see
   4 this message. !!!  [fixme: zonk on release]
   5
   6 This is a 1.9 development version of Guile, Project GNU's extension
   7 language library.  Guile is an interpreter for Scheme, packaged as a
   8 library that you can link into your applications to give them their
   9 own scripting language.  Guile will eventually support other languages
  10 as well, giving users of Guile-based applications a choice of
  11 languages.
  12
  13 Guile versions with an odd middle number, i.e. 1.9.* are unstable
  14 development versions.  Even middle numbers indicate stable versions.
  15 This has been the case since the 1.3.* series.
  16
  17 The next stable release will likely be version 1.10.0.
  18
  19 Please send bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
  20
  21 See the LICENSE file for the specific terms that apply to Guile.
  22
  23
  24 Additional INSTALL instructions ===========================================
  25
  26 Generic instructions for configuring and compiling Guile can be found
  27 in the INSTALL file.  Guile specific information and configure options
  28 can be found below, including instructions for installing SLIB.
  29
  30 Guile requires a few external packages and can optionally use a number
  31 of external packages such as `readline' when they are available.
  32 Guile expects to be able to find these packages in the default
  33 compiler setup, it does not try to make any special arrangements
  34 itself.  For example, for the `readline' package, Guile expects to be
  35 able to find the include file <readline/readline.h>, without passing
  36 any special `-I' options to the compiler.
  37
  38 If you installed an external package, and you used the --prefix
  39 installation option to install it somewhere else than /usr/local, you
  40 must arrange for your compiler to find it by default.  If that
  41 compiler is gcc, one convenient way of making such arrangements is to
  42 use the --with-local-prefix option during installation, naming the
  43 same directory as you used in the --prefix option of the package.  In
  44 particular, it is not good enough to use the same --prefix option when
  45 you install gcc and the package; you need to use the
  46 --with-local-prefix option as well.  See the gcc documentation for
  47 more details.
  48
  49
  50 Required External Packages ================================================
  51
  52 Guile requires the following external packages:
  53
  54   - GNU MP, at least version 4.1
  55
  56     GNU MP is used for bignum arithmetic.  It is available from
  57     http://swox.com/gmp
  58
  59   - libltdl from libtool, at least from libtool version 1.5.6
  60
  61     libltdl is used for loading extensions at run-time.  It is
  62     available from http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/
  63
  64
  65 Special Instructions For Some Systems =====================================
  66
  67 We would like Guile to build on all systems using the simple
  68 instructions above, but it seems that a few systems still need special
  69 treatment.  If you can send us fixes for these problems, we'd be
  70 grateful.
  71
  72    <none yet listed>
  73
  74 Guile specific flags Accepted by Configure =================================
  75
  76 If you run the configure script with no arguments, it should examine
  77 your system and set things up appropriately.  However, there are a few
  78 switches specific to Guile you may find useful in some circumstances.
  79
  80 --with-threads  ---  Build with thread support
  81
  82   Build a Guile executable and library that supports multi-threading.
  83
  84   The default is to enable threading support when your operating
  85   system offsers 'POSIX threads'.  When you do not want threading, use
  86   `--without-threads'.
  87
  88 --enable-deprecated=LEVEL
  89
  90   Guile may contain features that are `deprecated'.  When a feature is
  91   deprecated, it means that it is still there, but that there is a
  92   better way of achieving the same thing, and we'd rather have you use
  93   this better way.  This allows us to eventually remove the old
  94   implementation and helps to keep Guile reasonably clean of historic
  95   baggage.
  96
  97   Deprecated features are considered harmful; using them is likely a
  98   bug.  See below for the related notion of `discouraged' features,
  99   which are OK but have fallen out of favor.
 100
 101   See the file NEWS for a list of features that are currently
 102   deprecated.  Each entry will also tell you what you should replace
 103   your code with.
 104
 105   To give you some help with this process, and to encourage (OK,
 106   nudge) people to switch to the newer methods, Guile can emit
 107   warnings or errors when you use a deprecated feature.  There is
 108   quite a range of possibilities, from being completely silent to
 109   giving errors at link time.  What exactly happens is determined both
 110   by the value of the `--enable-deprecated' configuration option when
 111   Guile was built, and by the GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED environment
 112   variable.
 113
 114   It works like this:
 115
 116     When Guile has been configured with `--enable-deprecated=no' (or,
 117     equivalently, with `--disable-deprecated') then all deprecated
 118     features are omitted from Guile.  You will get "undefined
 119     reference", "variable unbound" or similar errors when you try to
 120     use them.
 121
 122     When `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' has been specified (for LEVEL not
 123     "no"), LEVEL will be used as the default value of the environment
 124     variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED.  A value of "yes" is changed to
 125     "summary" and "shutup" is changed to "no", however.
 126
 127     When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "no", nothing special
 128     will happen when a deprecated feature is used.
 129
 130     When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "summary", and a
 131     deprecated feature has been used, Guile will print this message at
 132     exit:
 133
 134       Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
 135       variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
 136       program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
 137       this message.
 138
 139     When GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED has the value "detailed", a detailed
 140     warning is emitted immediatly for the first use of a deprecated
 141     feature.
 142
 143   The default is `--enable-deprecated=yes'.
 144
 145   In addition to setting GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED in the environment, you
 146   can also use (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) and (debug-disable
 147   'warn-deprecated) to enable and disable the detailed messaged at run
 148   time.
 149
 150 --disable-discouraged
 151
 152   In addition to deprecated features, Guile can also contain things
 153   that are merely `discouraged'.  It is OK to continue to use these
 154   features in old code, but new code should avoid them since there are
 155   better alternatives.
 156
 157   There is nothing wrong with a discouraged feature per se, but they
 158   might have strange names, or be non-standard, for example.  Avoiding
 159   them will make your code better.
 160
 161 --disable-shared  ---  Do not build shared libraries.
 162 --disable-static  ---  Do not build static libraries.
 163
 164   Normally, both static and shared libraries will be built if your
 165   system supports them.
 166
 167 --enable-debug-freelist  ---  Enable freelist debugging.
 168
 169   This enables a debugging version of scm_cell and scm_double_cell,
 170   and also registers an extra primitive, the setter
 171   `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
 172
 173   Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable the
 174   gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
 175
 176   (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t)  # turn on checking of the freelist
 177   (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f)  # turn off checking
 178
 179   Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and a
 180   garbage collection before each allocation of a cell.  This can slow
 181   down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
 182   turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
 183
 184 --enable-debug-malloc  ---  Enable malloc debugging.
 185
 186   Include code for debugging of calls to scm_malloc, scm_realloc, etc.
 187
 188   It records the number of allocated objects of each kind.  This is
 189   useful when searching for memory leaks.
 190
 191   A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
 192   `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
 193   number of objects of that kind.
 194
 195 --enable-guile-debug  ---  Include internal debugging functions
 196 --disable-arrays      ---  omit array and uniform array support
 197 --disable-posix       ---  omit posix interfaces
 198 --disable-networking  ---  omit networking interfaces
 199 --disable-regex       ---  omit regular expression interfaces
 200
 201
 202 Cross building Guile  =====================================================
 203
 204 As of guile-1.5.x, the build process uses compiled C files for
 205 snarfing, and (indirectly, through libtool) for linking, and uses the
 206 guile executable for generating documentation.
 207
 208 When cross building guile, you first need to configure, build and
 209 install guile for your build host.
 210
 211 Then, you may configure guile for cross building, eg:
 212
 213     ./configure --host=i686-pc-cygwin --disable-shared
 214
 215 A C compiler for the build system is required.  The default is
 216 "PATH=/usr/bin:$PATH cc".  If that doesn't suit it can be specified
 217 with the CC_FOR_BUILD variable in the usual way, for instance
 218
 219     ./configure --host=m68k-unknown-linux-gnu CC_FOR_BUILD=/my/local/gcc
 220
 221 Guile for the build system can be specified similarly with the
 222 GUILE_FOR_BUILD variable, it defaults to just "guile".
 223
 224
 225 Using Guile Without Installing It =========================================
 226
 227 The top directory of the Guile sources contains a script called
 228 "pre-inst-guile" that can be used to run the Guile that has just been
 229 built.
 230
 231
 232 Installing SLIB ===========================================================
 233
 234 In order to use SLIB from Guile you basically only need to put the
 235 `slib' directory _in_ one of the directories on Guile's load path.
 236
 237 The standard installation is:
 238
 239   1. Obtain slib from http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/SLIB.html
 240
 241   2. Put it in Guile's data directory, that is the directory printed when
 242      you type
 243
 244        guile-config info pkgdatadir
 245
 246      at the shell prompt.  This is normally `/usr/local/share/guile', so the
 247      directory will normally have full path `/usr/local/share/guile/slib'.
 248
 249   3. Start guile as a user with write access to the data directory and type
 250
 251        (use-modules (ice-9 slib))
 252
 253      at the Guile prompt.  This will generate the slibcat catalog next to
 254      the slib directory.
 255
 256 SLIB's `require' is provided by the Guile module (ice-9 slib).
 257
 258 Example:
 259
 260   (use-modules (ice-9 slib))
 261   (require 'primes)
 262   (prime? 7)
 263
 264
 265 Guile Documentation ==================================================
 266
 267 If you've never used Scheme before, then the Guile Tutorial
 268 (guile-tut.info) is a good starting point.  The Guile Reference Manual
 269 (guile.info) is the primary documentation for Guile.  The Goops object
 270 system is documented separately (goops.info).  A copy of the R5RS
 271 Scheme specification is included too (r5rs.info).
 272
 273 Info format versions of this documentation are installed as part of
 274 the normal build process.  The texinfo sources are under the doc
 275 directory, and other formats like Postscript, PDF, DVI or HTML can be
 276 generated from them with Tex and Texinfo tools.
 277
 278 The doc directory also includes an example-smob subdirectory which has
 279 the example code from the "Defining New Types (Smobs)" chapter of the
 280 reference manual.
 281
 282 The Guile WWW page is at
 283
 284   http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html
 285
 286 It contains a link to the Guile FAQ.
 287
 288 About This Distribution ==============================================
 289
 290 Interesting files include:
 291
 292 - LICENSE, which contains the exact terms of the Guile license.
 293 - COPYING, which contains the terms of the GNU General Public License.
 294 - INSTALL, which contains general instructions for building/installing Guile.
 295 - NEWS, which describes user-visible changes since the last release of Guile.
 296
 297 Files are usually installed according to the prefix specified to
 298 configure, /usr/local by default.  Building and installing gives you:
 299
 300 Executables, in ${prefix}/bin:
 301
 302  guile --- a stand-alone interpreter for Guile.  With no arguments, this
 303         is a simple interactive Scheme interpreter.  It can also be used
 304         as an interpreter for script files; see the NEWS file for details.
 305  guile-config --- a Guile script which provides the information necessary
 306         to link your programs against the Guile library.
 307  guile-snarf --- a script to parse declarations in your C code for
 308         Scheme-visible C functions, Scheme objects to be used by C code,
 309         etc.
 310
 311 Libraries, in ${prefix}/lib.  Depending on the platform and options
 312         given to configure, you may get shared libraries in addition
 313         to or instead of these static libraries:
 314
 315  libguile.a --- an object library containing the Guile interpreter,
 316         You can use Guile in your own programs by linking against this.
 317  libguilereadline.a --- an object library containing glue code for the
 318         GNU readline library.
 319
 320  libguile-srfi-*.a --- various SRFI support libraries
 321
 322 Header files, in ${prefix}/include:
 323
 324  libguile.h, guile/gh.h, libguile/*.h --- for libguile.
 325  guile-readline/readline.h --- for guile-readline.
 326
 327 Support files, in ${prefix}/share/guile/<version>:
 328
 329  ice-9/* --- run-time support for Guile: the module system,
 330         read-eval-print loop, some R4RS code and other infrastructure.
 331  oop/* --- the Guile Object-Oriented Programming System (GOOPS)
 332  scripts/* --- executable modules, i.e., scheme programs that can be both
 333         called as an executable from the shell, and loaded and used as a
 334         module from scheme code.  See scripts/README for more info.
 335  srfi/* --- SRFI support modules.  See srfi/README for more info.
 336
 337 Automake macros, in ${prefix}/share/aclocal:
 338
 339  guile.m4
 340
 341 Documentation in Info format, in ${prefix}/info:
 342
 343  guile --- Guile reference manual.
 344
 345  guile-tut --- Guile tutorial.
 346
 347  GOOPS --- GOOPS reference manual.
 348
 349  r5rs --- Revised(5) Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme.
 350
 351
 352 The Guile source tree is laid out as follows:
 353
 354 libguile:
 355         The Guile Scheme interpreter --- both the object library
 356         for you to link with your programs, and the executable you can run.
 357 ice-9:  Guile's module system, initialization code, and other infrastructure.
 358 guile-config:
 359         Source for the guile-config script.
 360 guile-readline:
 361         The glue code for using GNU readline with Guile.  This
 362         will be build when configure can find a recent enough readline
 363         library on your system.
 364 doc:    Documentation (see above).
 365
 366 Anonymous CVS Access and FTP snapshots ===============================
 367
 368 We make the developers' working Guile sources available via anonymous
 369 CVS, and by nightly snapshots, accessible via FTP.  See the files
 370 `ANON-CVS' and `SNAPSHOTS' for details.
 371
 372 If you would like to receive mail when people commit changes to the
 373 Guile CVS repository, you can subscribe to guile-cvs@gnu.org by the
 374 Mailman mailing list interface at
 375
 376   <http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guile-cvs>