1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
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12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
16 * Changes to the distribution
18 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
20 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
24 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
26 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
27 This slightly improves program startup times.
29 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
30 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
32 * Changes to the C interface
34 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
35 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
39 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
41 * Infrastructure changes
43 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
45 The new repository can be accessed using
46 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
47 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
49 * New modules (see the manual for details)
53 * New features (see the manual for details)
55 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
56 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
60 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
61 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
63 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
64 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
66 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
67 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
69 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
70 lead to a stack overflow.
72 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
73 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
74 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
75 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
76 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
77 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
78 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
79 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
80 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
81 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
82 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
83 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
84 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
85 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
86 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
88 * Changes to the distribution
92 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
93 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
96 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
100 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
101 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
102 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
103 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
104 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
105 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
106 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
107 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
108 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
109 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
110 system and library calls.
111 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
112 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
113 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
114 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
115 uniform vectors on AIX.
116 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
117 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
118 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
119 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
120 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
122 * New modules (see the manual for details)
126 * Documentation fixes and improvements
128 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
130 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
131 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
133 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
135 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
137 * Changes to the distribution
139 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
141 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
142 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
143 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
145 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
147 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
150 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
152 * New modules (see the manual for details)
159 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
160 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
161 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
162 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
163 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
164 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
165 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
167 * Implementation improvements
169 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
170 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
174 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
176 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
178 ** set-program-arguments
183 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
184 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
185 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
186 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
187 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
188 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
190 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
191 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
192 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
193 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
194 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
195 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
196 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
197 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
198 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
199 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
200 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
201 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
202 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
203 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
204 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
205 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
208 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
210 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
212 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
214 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
215 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
216 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
217 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
218 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
219 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
225 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
229 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
231 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
233 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
235 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
237 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
239 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
241 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
242 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
243 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
245 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
247 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
249 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
250 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
252 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
254 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
255 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
257 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
259 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
261 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
263 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
265 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
267 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
269 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
271 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
273 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
275 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
276 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
277 file was on a different device.
280 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
282 * Changes to the distribution
284 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
286 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
288 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
290 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
292 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
294 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
297 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
299 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
300 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
301 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
302 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
303 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
304 items like the versioned share directory name
305 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
307 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
308 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
309 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
310 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
311 with each micro release during a stable series.
313 ** Thread implementation has changed.
315 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
316 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
317 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
318 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
319 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
322 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
323 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
324 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
325 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
328 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
329 in which case "null" threads are used.
331 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
332 "Blocking", and others.
334 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
336 This is a milder form of deprecation.
338 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
339 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
340 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
341 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
342 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
344 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
345 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
347 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
349 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
350 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
352 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
355 This SRFI is always available.
357 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
359 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
360 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
361 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
362 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
365 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
367 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
368 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
369 parameters without currying.
371 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
373 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
374 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
376 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
377 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
380 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
381 with a renaming import, for example.
383 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
385 The official version is good enough now.
387 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
389 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
390 provided. Use 'make html'.
392 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
394 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
395 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
396 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
397 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
399 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
401 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
404 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
406 ** New command line option `-L'.
408 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
410 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
412 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
413 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
415 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
417 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
418 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
420 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
422 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
423 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
426 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
429 (define-module (demo)
433 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
436 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
438 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
440 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
441 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
442 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
444 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
446 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
447 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
449 ** New function hashx-remove!
451 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
453 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
454 barriers and dynamic states.
456 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
457 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
458 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
461 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
462 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
463 Barriers" in the manual.
465 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
466 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
468 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
470 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
471 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
472 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
475 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
477 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
478 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
480 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
481 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
482 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
484 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
485 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
487 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
488 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
489 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
491 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
492 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
493 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
496 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
497 substrings and read-only strings.
499 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
500 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
503 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
505 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
514 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
515 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
516 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
518 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
519 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
520 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
523 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
524 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
527 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
529 See the manual for details.
531 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
533 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
536 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
538 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
539 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
540 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
541 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
543 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
544 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
545 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
548 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
550 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
551 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
562 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
566 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
571 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
575 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
579 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
582 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
583 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
584 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
585 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
587 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
588 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
591 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
594 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
598 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
600 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
601 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
602 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
605 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
608 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
610 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
613 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
614 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
622 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
623 has been detected is to
625 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
626 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
627 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
630 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
633 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
635 to your .guile init file.
637 ** New define-module option: :replace
639 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
642 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
643 for the core binding `format'.
645 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
647 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
648 a prefix to all imported bindings.
651 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
653 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
656 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
658 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
659 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
660 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
662 ** New function: effective-version
664 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
665 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
666 to the distribution" above.
668 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
670 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
671 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
673 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
675 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
676 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
678 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
680 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
681 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
684 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
686 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
688 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
690 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
691 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
692 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
695 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
696 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
697 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
700 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
701 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
703 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
704 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
705 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
708 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
710 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
711 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
714 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
715 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
717 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
718 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
719 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
720 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
721 level for the current thread.
723 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
725 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
727 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
728 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
731 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
733 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
735 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
738 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
740 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
743 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
744 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
745 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
747 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
748 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
749 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
750 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
761 ERROR: Numerical overflow
763 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
766 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
768 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
769 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
770 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
781 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
783 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
784 them is also done exactly, of course:
789 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
792 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
793 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
795 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
797 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
798 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
799 equal to a floating point number. For example:
801 (inexact->exact 1.234)
802 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
804 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
806 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
809 ** New function 'rationalize'.
811 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
812 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
814 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
817 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
818 result when both its arguments are exact.
820 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
822 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
823 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
824 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
826 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
828 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
829 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
830 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
832 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
835 ** pretty-print has more options.
837 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
838 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
839 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
841 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
843 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
844 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
845 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
847 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
849 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
850 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
852 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
854 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
855 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
858 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
860 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
861 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
862 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
863 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
864 without the soft port blocking.
866 ** Deprecated: undefine
868 There is no replacement for undefine.
870 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
871 have been discouraged.
873 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
874 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
875 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
878 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
880 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
882 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
883 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
884 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
885 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
888 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
889 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
890 be removed in the next major Guile release.
892 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
894 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
895 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
896 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
897 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
898 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
899 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
901 * Changes to the C interface
903 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
904 take a 'delete' function argument.
906 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
907 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
909 This is an incompatible change.
911 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
913 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
914 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
915 --disable-deprecated.
917 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
919 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
920 Scheme values has been added.
922 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
923 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
928 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
929 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
931 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
933 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
934 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
937 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
939 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
940 scm_from_int for ints.
942 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
943 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
944 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
946 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
948 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
949 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
950 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
953 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
955 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
957 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
959 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
960 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
961 following alternatives.
963 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
964 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
965 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
966 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
968 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
969 do the validating for you.
971 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
972 have been discouraged.
974 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
975 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
978 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
980 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
981 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
984 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
986 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
989 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
992 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
994 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
995 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
997 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
998 scm_truncate_number should have.
1000 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1001 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1003 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1006 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1007 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1008 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1010 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1011 easier to use from C.
1013 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1014 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1016 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1017 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1018 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1021 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1022 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1023 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1024 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1027 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1028 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1029 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1030 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1031 and is thus quite efficient.
1033 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1035 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1036 about the character encoding.
1038 Replace according to the following table:
1040 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1041 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1042 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1043 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1044 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1045 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1046 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1047 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1048 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1050 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1051 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1053 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1055 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1056 now also available to C code.
1058 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1060 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1061 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1062 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1064 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1067 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1069 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1070 unceremoniously removed.
1072 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1073 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1074 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1076 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1077 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1078 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1079 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1080 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1081 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1084 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1086 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1087 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1088 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1089 manual for more details.
1091 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1092 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1094 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1095 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1096 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1098 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1100 Migrate according to the following table:
1102 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1103 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1104 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1105 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1106 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1107 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1108 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1110 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1111 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1112 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1113 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1114 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1115 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1116 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1118 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1120 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1121 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1123 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1124 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1125 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1126 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1128 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1130 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1131 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1132 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1134 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1135 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1137 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1138 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1139 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1140 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1142 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1144 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1145 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1146 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1147 prevent a potential memory leak:
1154 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1156 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1157 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1159 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1160 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1167 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1168 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1172 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1174 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1176 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1177 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1178 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1180 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1181 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1183 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1185 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1187 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1188 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1189 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1191 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1192 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1194 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1195 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1196 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1197 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1200 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1202 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1203 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1204 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1206 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1208 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1209 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1211 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1213 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1214 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1216 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1218 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1219 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1220 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1222 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1224 You should not have used them.
1226 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1228 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1229 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1231 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1233 This macro is not intended for public use.
1235 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1237 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1239 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1241 Use scm_is_real instead.
1243 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1245 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1247 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1249 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1250 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1252 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1253 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1255 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1256 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1258 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1260 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1263 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1265 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1266 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1267 to the distribution" above.
1269 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1271 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1272 arguments are now passed directly:
1274 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1276 This is an incompatible change.
1278 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1280 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1281 function in the init section.
1283 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1285 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1287 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1288 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1289 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1290 stays roughly constant.
1292 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1293 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1294 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1295 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1296 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1299 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1300 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1301 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1302 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1304 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1305 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1306 objects for every type.
1309 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1311 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1313 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1315 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1316 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1317 initializes a new cell (see below).
1319 ** New functions for memory management
1321 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1322 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1323 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1324 cause aborts in long running programs.
1326 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1327 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1329 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1330 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1331 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1332 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1333 details and for upgrading instructions.
1335 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1336 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1337 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1339 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1341 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1342 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1343 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1344 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1345 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1347 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1348 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1349 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1351 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1352 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1354 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1356 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1357 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1358 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1359 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1360 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1362 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1364 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1367 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1369 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1371 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1373 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1374 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1376 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1378 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1379 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1381 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1382 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1384 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1386 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1388 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1389 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1390 blocking it is not well defined.
1392 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1394 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1395 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1396 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1397 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1398 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1399 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1400 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1401 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1402 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1403 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1404 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1405 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1406 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1407 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1408 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1409 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1410 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1411 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1412 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1413 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1414 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1415 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1416 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1417 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1418 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1419 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1420 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1421 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1422 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1423 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1424 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1426 * Changes to bundled modules
1430 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1431 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1432 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1433 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1434 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1437 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1439 * Changes to the distribution
1441 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1443 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1445 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1446 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1447 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1448 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1449 indicate major changes in Guile.
1451 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1452 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1453 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1454 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1456 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1457 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1458 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1459 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1460 micro version number.
1462 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1464 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1466 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1467 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1469 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1471 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1472 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1473 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1475 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1477 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1478 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1479 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1482 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1484 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1487 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1489 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1490 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1492 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1494 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1495 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1498 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1500 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1503 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1506 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1508 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1510 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1511 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1512 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1514 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1516 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1518 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1521 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1523 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1525 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1527 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1528 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1529 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1531 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1533 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1535 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1536 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1545 See README there for more info.
1547 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1548 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1551 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1553 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1555 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1557 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1558 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1559 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1561 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1563 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1564 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1565 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1567 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1568 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1570 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1573 (oop goops describe)
1575 (oop goops active-slot)
1576 (oop goops composite-slot)
1578 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1579 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1580 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1582 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1584 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1585 in the default environment:
1587 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1588 %read-line write-line
1590 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1591 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1593 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1595 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1598 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1599 can be used for similar functionality.
1601 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1603 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1604 it defines two procedures:
1606 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1608 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1609 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1610 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1613 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1615 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1616 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1617 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1618 write large strings.
1620 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1622 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1623 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1625 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1627 for complete documentation.
1629 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1631 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1632 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1633 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1634 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1636 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1637 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1641 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1642 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1643 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1646 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1649 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1650 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1652 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1653 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1656 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1659 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1661 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1663 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1665 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1667 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1668 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1669 Scheme programs easier.
1671 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1672 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1673 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1674 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1675 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1678 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1679 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1681 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1684 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1686 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1687 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1688 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1691 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1693 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1695 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1696 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1697 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1698 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1699 was also ASCII, for example.
1701 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1703 tag - no replacement.
1704 fseek - replaced by seek.
1705 list* - replaced by cons*.
1707 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1711 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1712 (define m (make-safe-module))
1713 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1714 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1715 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1717 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1719 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1720 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1721 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1723 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1725 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1726 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1727 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1728 from the issues related to the module system.
1730 *** New function: load-extension
1732 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1734 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1736 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1737 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1738 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1740 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1742 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1743 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1744 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1745 support dynamic linking).
1747 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1749 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1750 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1751 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1752 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1755 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1756 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1757 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1758 library and initialize it explicitly.
1760 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1761 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1763 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1765 (define-module (foo bar))
1767 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1769 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1771 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1772 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1774 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1775 (null-environment 5)
1776 (interaction-environment)
1782 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1784 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1785 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1786 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1787 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1789 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1790 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1791 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1792 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1793 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1794 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1795 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1796 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1797 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1798 one eval to the next.
1800 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1801 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1802 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1803 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1804 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1806 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1807 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1808 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1809 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1810 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1811 used in a lexical environment.
1813 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1814 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1815 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1816 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1817 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1818 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1820 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1822 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1823 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1824 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1825 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1826 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1828 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1829 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1830 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1832 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1833 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1835 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1836 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1837 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1839 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1840 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1842 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1843 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1844 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1845 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1848 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1849 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1850 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1851 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1853 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1854 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1855 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1857 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1858 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1859 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1860 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1861 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1863 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1865 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1866 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1867 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1869 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1870 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1871 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1873 See manual for more info.
1875 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1877 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1878 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1879 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1881 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1883 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1884 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1885 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1887 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1888 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1889 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1890 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1892 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1894 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1895 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1897 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1898 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1899 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1900 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1901 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1904 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1905 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1906 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1907 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1908 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1909 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1911 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1912 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1913 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1914 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1915 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1917 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1918 objects are usually permanent.
1920 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1921 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1923 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1925 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1926 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1929 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1933 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1938 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1940 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1941 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1942 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1943 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1945 ** New function `make-object-property'
1947 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1948 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1952 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1953 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1957 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1958 source properties eventually.
1960 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1962 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1963 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1964 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1966 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1967 will be removed in the next release.
1969 ** New define-module option: pure
1971 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1976 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1979 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1981 Export names NAME1 ...
1983 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1984 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1988 (define-module (foo)
1990 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1993 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1998 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2000 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2002 ** New function: port? X
2004 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2005 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2007 ** New function: file-port?
2009 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2011 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2013 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2014 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2015 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2016 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2017 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2019 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2021 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2022 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2023 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2024 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2025 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2028 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2030 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2031 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2032 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2033 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2036 ** New function: crypt password salt
2038 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2041 ** New function: chroot path
2043 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2045 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2047 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2050 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2052 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2054 ** New function: getpass prompt
2056 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2059 ** New function: flock file operation
2061 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2063 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2065 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2068 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2070 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2071 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2072 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2073 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2074 of the temporary file.
2076 ** New function: open-input-string string
2078 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2079 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2080 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2082 ** New function: open-output-string
2084 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2085 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2087 ** New function: get-output-string
2089 Return the contents of an output string port.
2091 ** New function: identity
2093 Return the argument.
2095 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2096 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2098 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2100 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2101 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2102 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2105 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2106 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2108 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2110 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2111 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2112 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2115 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2116 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2117 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2121 Use `identity' instead.
2127 ** Deprecated: return-it
2131 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2133 Use `string-length' instead.
2135 ** Deprecated: flags
2137 Use `logior' instead.
2139 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2141 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2142 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2143 port-for-each is more flexible.
2145 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2146 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2147 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2149 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2151 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2153 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2155 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2157 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2159 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2160 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2162 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2163 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2165 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2166 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2168 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2170 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2171 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2173 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2174 Use module system operations for all variables.
2176 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2178 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2181 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2183 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2184 The following bugs have been fixed:
2186 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2187 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2190 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2191 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2192 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2194 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2195 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2197 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2198 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2201 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2202 The expansion used to be like so:
2204 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2206 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2208 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2210 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2211 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2213 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2215 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2216 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2217 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2221 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2222 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2224 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2229 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2230 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2232 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2233 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2234 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2236 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2239 * Changes to the C interface
2241 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2243 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2244 with "_t". What a concept.
2246 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2248 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2250 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2254 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2255 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2257 *** C Functions removed
2259 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2260 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2261 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2262 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2263 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2264 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2265 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2267 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2269 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2271 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2273 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2275 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2276 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2278 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2280 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2283 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2285 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2287 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2289 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2290 Evaluation" in the manual.
2292 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2294 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2295 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2297 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2299 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2300 Constructors" in the manual.
2302 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2304 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2305 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2307 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2309 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2311 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2312 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2313 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2315 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2317 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2319 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2320 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2321 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2324 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2326 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2328 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2329 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2331 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2333 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2334 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2335 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2336 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2338 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2339 scm_primitive_property_ref
2340 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2341 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2343 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2344 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2346 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2348 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2349 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2350 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2351 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2353 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2355 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2356 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2357 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2358 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2359 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2360 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2361 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2363 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2364 scm_remember_upto_here
2366 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2368 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2370 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2371 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2373 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2375 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2377 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2379 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2381 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2383 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2384 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2385 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2386 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2387 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2388 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2390 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2392 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2394 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2395 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2396 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2398 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2400 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2401 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2402 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2404 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2406 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2407 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2410 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2413 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2414 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2417 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2419 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2421 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2423 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2425 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2427 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2429 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2430 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2431 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2432 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2433 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2434 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2435 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2436 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2437 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2438 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2439 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2440 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2441 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2442 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2443 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2445 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2446 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2447 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2448 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2449 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2450 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2451 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2452 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2453 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2454 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2455 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2456 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2457 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2458 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2459 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2460 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2461 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2462 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2463 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2464 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2465 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2466 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2467 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2468 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2469 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2470 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2471 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2472 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2473 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2475 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2477 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2479 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2480 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2482 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2484 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2486 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2488 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2490 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2492 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2494 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2496 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2498 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2501 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2502 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2504 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2506 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2508 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2510 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2512 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2514 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2516 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2518 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2521 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2523 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2525 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2527 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2528 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2530 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2531 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2533 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2535 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2536 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2537 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2539 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2541 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2543 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2544 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2546 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2547 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2548 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2549 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2551 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2552 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2553 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2555 Use the new ones from above instead.
2557 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2559 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2560 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2561 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2563 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2564 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2566 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2567 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2570 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2571 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2573 Use the new functions instead.
2575 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2578 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2580 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2582 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2585 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2587 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2590 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2592 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2595 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2596 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2597 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2599 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2601 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2602 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2604 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2605 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2606 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2607 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2610 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2612 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2613 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2614 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2615 inexact for an exact.
2617 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2618 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2619 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2622 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2623 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2624 accept an inexact argument.
2626 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2627 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2629 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2632 ** New number validation macros:
2633 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2637 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2639 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2640 scm_unprotect_object.
2642 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2644 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2646 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2649 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2651 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2655 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2657 * Changes to the distribution
2659 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2661 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2662 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2663 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2664 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2665 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2666 obtain these programs.
2667 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2668 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2670 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2671 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2672 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2673 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2674 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2676 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2677 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2678 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2679 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2683 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2686 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2687 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2688 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2689 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2691 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2693 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2695 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2696 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2698 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2699 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2701 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2702 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2704 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2705 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2706 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2707 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2709 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2711 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2715 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2716 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2718 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2720 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2721 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2723 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2724 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2725 number of objects of that kind.
2727 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2729 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2730 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2731 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2732 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2733 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2735 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2737 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2739 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2741 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2744 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2746 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2748 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2750 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2752 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2754 ** New command line option --debug
2756 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2758 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2760 ** New help facility
2762 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2763 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2764 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2765 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2766 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2767 (help) gives this text
2769 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2770 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2772 Examples: (help help)
2774 (help "output-string")
2776 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2778 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2780 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2781 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2784 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2785 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2786 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2789 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2790 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2791 use absolute filenames when possible.
2793 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2794 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2795 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2798 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2800 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2801 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2802 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2803 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2805 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2807 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2809 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2810 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2811 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2813 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2814 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2815 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2817 (read-enable 'positions)
2818 (debug-enable 'debug)
2820 ** Backtraces in scripts
2822 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2826 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2828 at the top of the script.
2830 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2831 The second enables backtraces.)
2833 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2835 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2836 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2837 substantially faster than before.
2839 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2840 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2842 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2843 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2845 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2847 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2848 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2849 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2851 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2852 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2853 when this hook is run in the future.
2855 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2856 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2858 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2860 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2861 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2864 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2865 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2866 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2868 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2869 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2871 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2872 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2874 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2875 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2876 in order not to need further allocation.)
2878 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2881 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2882 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2883 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2884 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2886 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2888 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2891 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2893 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2896 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2897 GC in percent of total heap size
2900 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2901 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2903 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2905 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2906 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2908 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2910 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2911 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2913 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2915 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2916 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2920 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2921 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2923 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2925 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2927 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2929 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2931 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2933 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2934 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2936 (simple-format port message . args)
2937 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2938 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2939 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2940 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2941 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2942 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2943 Does not add a trailing newline."
2945 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2947 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2948 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2950 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2951 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2953 ** Deprecated: list*
2955 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2957 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2959 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2960 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2962 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2963 is returned as result.
2965 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2967 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2969 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2971 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2972 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2975 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2977 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2979 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2980 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2982 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2984 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2986 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2988 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2990 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2992 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2994 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2996 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2997 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2998 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3000 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3003 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3005 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3006 the readability of argument checking.
3008 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3010 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3012 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3014 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3015 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3016 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3017 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3018 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3019 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3020 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3022 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3024 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3026 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3027 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3029 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3031 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3032 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3035 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3037 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3038 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3039 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3041 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3042 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3043 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3045 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3046 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3047 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3048 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3049 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3050 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3051 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3053 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3054 scm_end_input (object);
3055 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3056 ptob->flush (object);
3058 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3059 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3062 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3064 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3066 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3067 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3068 removed in a future version.
3070 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3072 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3073 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3074 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3075 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3077 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3078 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3080 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3083 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3085 in your configure.in.
3087 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3092 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3098 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3100 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3104 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3105 (define make-message string-append)
3107 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3109 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3113 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3118 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3122 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3124 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3125 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3127 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3129 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3130 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3131 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3132 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3133 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3134 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3136 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3137 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3138 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3140 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3141 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3142 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3145 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3146 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3147 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3148 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3149 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3151 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3152 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3153 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3154 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3155 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3156 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3157 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3159 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3161 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3162 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3163 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3165 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3166 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3167 KEY in the calling thread.
3169 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3170 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3171 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3172 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3173 associated with the key.
3175 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3177 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3178 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3180 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3182 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3183 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3184 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3186 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3188 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3189 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3191 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3193 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3195 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3196 returned is undefined.
3198 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3199 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3200 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3202 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3203 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3204 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3206 ** New C level GC hooks
3208 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3210 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3213 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3214 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3215 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3217 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3218 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3219 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3221 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3222 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3225 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3227 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3228 allocation parameters
3230 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3231 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3232 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3236 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3237 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3238 scm_default_max_segment_size
3240 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3242 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3243 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3245 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3247 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3248 object and count on the object being protected until
3249 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3251 The functions also have better time complexity.
3253 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3254 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3255 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3256 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3257 are no longer needed.
3259 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3261 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3262 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3263 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3264 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3266 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3268 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3270 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3272 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3273 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3274 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3275 until this issue has been settled.
3277 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3279 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3281 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3284 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3286 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3288 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3289 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3290 descriptors were checked.
3292 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3293 atomically written to a pipe.
3295 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3296 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3297 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3298 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3299 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3300 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3301 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3304 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3305 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3306 is changed without calling tzset.
3308 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3310 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3311 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3312 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3314 (define write-network-long
3315 (lambda (value port)
3316 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3317 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3318 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3320 (define read-network-long
3322 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3323 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3324 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3326 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3327 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3329 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3330 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3331 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3332 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3334 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3335 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3336 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3337 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3341 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3343 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3347 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3348 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3349 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3355 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3356 for a description of available commands.
3358 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3359 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3360 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3362 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3364 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3365 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3367 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3369 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3371 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3372 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3373 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3374 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3375 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3376 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3379 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3381 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3382 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3383 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3384 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3386 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3387 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3389 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3391 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3393 ** Readline support has changed again.
3395 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3396 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3397 to activate readline is now
3399 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3402 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3404 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3405 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3406 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3409 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3410 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3411 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3414 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3415 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3416 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3417 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3418 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3419 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3421 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3422 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3424 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3426 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3427 object it receives is the same string passed to
3428 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3429 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3430 string, not the suffix.
3432 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3433 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3434 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3436 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3438 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3439 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3440 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3441 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3444 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3446 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3448 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3449 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3450 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3451 appear from left to right.
3453 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3456 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3458 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3459 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3461 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3465 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3467 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3469 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3471 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3472 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3473 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3475 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3477 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3479 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3481 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3484 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3486 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3487 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3488 mentioning it here anyway.
3490 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3492 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3493 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3494 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3495 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3498 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3500 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3502 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3504 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3505 otherwise return #f.
3507 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3509 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3510 returned by `opendir'.
3512 ** New function: using-readline?
3514 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3516 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3518 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3519 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3521 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3523 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3525 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3526 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3527 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3529 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3531 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3532 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3534 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3536 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3537 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3538 documentation slots are not yet used.
3540 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3542 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3543 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3544 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3549 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3550 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3551 (string-append x y))
3553 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3554 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3556 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3557 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3558 be made in a clean way.]
3560 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3562 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3564 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3566 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3567 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3569 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3571 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3573 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3575 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3577 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3578 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3579 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3580 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3583 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3585 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3587 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3589 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3591 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3592 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3594 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3596 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3598 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3600 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3602 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3603 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3604 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3605 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3606 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3607 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3609 This should not make any difference for most users.
3611 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3613 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3614 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3616 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3618 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3619 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3620 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3621 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3622 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3624 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3626 It is now replaced by:
3628 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3630 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3631 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3633 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3635 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3636 This might change when we get the new module system.
3638 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3642 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3644 * Changes to mailing lists
3646 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3648 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3651 * Changes to the distribution
3653 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3655 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3656 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3657 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3658 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3659 you explicitly specify it.
3661 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3662 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3663 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3664 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3665 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3668 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3669 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3670 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3671 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3673 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3674 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3675 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3678 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3680 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3683 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3685 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3687 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3688 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3689 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3690 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3692 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3693 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3696 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3698 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3699 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3700 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3701 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3702 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3703 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3704 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3705 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3717 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3718 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3719 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3720 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3721 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3726 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3727 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3735 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3740 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3741 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3744 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3745 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3746 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3747 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3749 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3751 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3753 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3754 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3756 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3758 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3760 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3761 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3763 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3766 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3768 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3770 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3772 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3774 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3776 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3778 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3779 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3780 when the hook was created.
3782 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3783 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3784 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3785 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3786 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3787 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3788 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3789 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3790 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3792 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3793 the dlopen family of functions.
3795 ** New function `provided?'
3797 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3798 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3799 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3800 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3802 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3804 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3805 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3806 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3807 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3810 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3811 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3812 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3813 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3815 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3816 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3817 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3820 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3821 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3822 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3823 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3824 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3825 but with the flag set.
3827 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3829 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3830 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3832 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3833 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3834 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3835 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3836 available Scheme format implementations.
3838 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3839 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3840 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3841 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3842 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3843 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3844 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3845 output is to the current error port if available by the
3846 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3849 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3850 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3851 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3852 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3853 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3854 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3855 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3856 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3858 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3859 be executed at a time.
3862 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3864 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3865 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3866 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3868 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3869 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3870 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3871 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3872 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3873 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3874 general form of a directive is:
3876 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3878 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3880 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3882 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3883 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3884 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3887 Any (print as `display' does).
3891 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3895 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3899 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3905 print number sign always.
3908 print comma separated.
3910 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3916 print number sign always.
3919 print comma separated.
3921 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3927 print number sign always.
3930 print comma separated.
3932 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3938 print number sign always.
3941 print comma separated.
3943 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3948 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3952 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3955 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3958 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3961 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3966 prints `y' and `ies'.
3969 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3972 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3977 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3981 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3984 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3985 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3987 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3990 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3991 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3993 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3996 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3998 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4000 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4003 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4005 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4007 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4010 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4013 The sign appears before the padding.
4021 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4023 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4028 print N page separators.
4038 newline is ignored, white space left.
4041 newline is left, white space ignored.
4046 relative tabulation.
4052 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4054 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4057 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4059 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4062 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4065 converts by `string-upcase'.
4068 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4070 jumps N arguments forward.
4073 jumps 1 argument backward.
4076 jumps N arguments backward.
4079 jumps to the 0th argument.
4082 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4084 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4085 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4087 take argument from N.
4090 true test conditional.
4093 if-else-then conditional.
4099 default clause follows.
4102 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4104 at most N iterations.
4107 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4110 args from the rest of arguments.
4113 args from the rest args (lists).
4124 aborts if N <= M <= K
4126 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4129 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4132 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4138 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4140 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4142 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4143 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4144 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4145 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4146 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4147 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4151 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4155 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4161 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4164 Print a `#\space' character
4166 print N `#\space' characters.
4169 Print a `#\tab' character
4171 print N `#\tab' characters.
4174 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4175 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4176 must be a positive decimal number.
4179 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4180 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4181 be processed by `read'.
4184 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4185 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4186 be processed by `read'.
4189 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4192 prints format version.
4195 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4196 and format it accordingly.
4198 *** Configuration Variables
4200 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4201 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4202 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4203 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4206 format:symbol-case-conv
4207 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4208 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4209 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4210 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4211 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4213 format:iobj-case-conv
4214 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4215 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4218 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4221 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4227 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4228 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4229 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4230 `format' padding style.
4233 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4234 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4235 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4236 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4240 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4241 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4242 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4245 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4246 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4247 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4248 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4249 parameters or modifiers)).
4252 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4254 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4256 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4257 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4259 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4260 string-downcase! functions.
4262 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4263 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4265 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4268 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4271 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4272 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4274 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4276 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4277 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4279 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4280 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4281 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4282 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4283 would if STRING were input.
4285 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4287 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4288 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4289 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4290 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4293 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4295 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4296 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4299 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4301 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4302 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4304 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4305 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4307 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4308 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4309 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4310 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4312 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4313 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4315 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4316 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4317 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4319 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4320 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4322 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4323 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4324 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4325 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4326 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4328 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4329 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4330 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4331 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4332 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4333 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4335 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4336 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4337 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4340 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4341 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4342 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4343 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4344 the following grammar:
4345 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4346 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4347 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4348 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4349 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4350 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4351 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4352 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4353 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4354 last option in its combination)
4356 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4357 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4358 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4359 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4361 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4362 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4363 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4365 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4366 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4367 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4369 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4370 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4371 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4372 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4373 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4374 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4375 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4376 ordinary argument strings.
4378 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4379 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4380 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4381 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4383 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4384 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4386 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4387 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4388 - a required option is omitted
4389 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4390 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4391 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4392 - an option predicate fails
4397 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4400 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4401 (verbose (required? #f)
4404 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4405 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4406 (predicate ,string?))))
4408 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4409 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4411 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4412 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4413 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4414 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4417 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4419 It will be removed in a few releases.
4421 ** New syntax: lambda*
4422 ** New syntax: define*
4423 ** New syntax: define*-public
4424 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4425 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4426 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4428 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4429 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4430 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4431 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4432 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4434 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4435 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4436 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4438 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4440 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4441 and examples for `lambda*':
4444 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4446 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4447 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4448 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4449 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4450 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4451 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4452 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4453 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4455 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4457 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4458 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4459 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4460 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4462 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4463 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4464 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4465 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4466 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4467 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4468 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4469 and until the procedure is called.
4471 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4473 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4474 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4475 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4476 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4477 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4478 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4479 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4480 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4481 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4482 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4484 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4485 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4486 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4487 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4490 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4492 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4493 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4494 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4495 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4497 ** New syntax: and-let*
4498 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4500 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4501 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4502 (<variable> <expression>)
4505 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4506 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4507 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4510 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4511 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4512 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4513 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4514 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4515 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4516 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4518 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4519 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4520 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4521 shadow earlier bindings.
4523 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4525 ** New sorting functions
4527 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4528 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4529 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4530 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4532 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4533 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4536 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4537 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4538 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4540 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4541 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4542 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4543 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4545 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4546 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4547 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4548 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4549 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4552 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4553 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4554 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4555 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4556 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4557 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4559 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4560 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4561 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4563 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4564 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4565 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4568 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4569 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4570 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4572 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4573 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4575 ** New built-in random number support
4577 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4578 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4579 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4580 returned have a uniform distribution.
4582 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4583 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4584 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4585 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4586 effect of the `random' operation.
4588 *** New variable: *random-state*
4589 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4590 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4591 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4592 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4593 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4596 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4597 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4598 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4599 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4600 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4602 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4603 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4604 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4605 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4606 initialized using SEED.
4608 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4609 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4610 range between 0 and 1.
4612 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4613 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4614 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4615 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4616 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4617 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4618 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4620 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4621 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4622 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4623 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4624 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4625 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4627 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4628 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4629 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4630 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4632 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4633 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4634 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4635 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4637 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4638 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4639 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4641 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4643 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4646 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4647 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4650 ** New function: make-guardian
4651 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4652 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4653 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4654 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4655 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4657 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4658 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4659 one object if at all.
4661 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4662 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4663 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4665 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4666 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4667 read again in last-in first-out order.
4669 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4670 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4672 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4674 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4675 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4676 file position is used.
4678 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4679 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4680 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4682 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4683 redefined using seek.
4685 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4686 size is not supplied.
4688 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4689 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4691 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4692 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4694 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4696 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4697 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4698 and returns the contents as a single string.
4700 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4701 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4702 lists in serial order.
4704 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4705 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4706 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4708 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4709 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4710 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4711 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4713 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4714 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4715 and #f if an error occured.
4717 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4719 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4720 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4721 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4722 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4724 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4726 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4729 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4731 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4734 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4738 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4739 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4741 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4742 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4746 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4748 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4750 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4751 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4753 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4755 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4756 might change when we get the new module system.
4758 ** The smob interface
4760 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4761 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4763 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4765 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4769 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4770 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4771 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4772 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4773 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4774 will be freed by the default free function.
4776 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4777 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4778 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4779 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4781 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4782 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4783 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4784 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4786 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4788 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4789 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4793 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4794 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4795 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4797 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4798 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4799 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4800 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4802 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4803 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4804 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4806 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4807 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4808 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4809 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4811 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4812 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4813 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4815 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4819 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4821 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4822 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4823 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4825 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4826 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4827 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4829 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4830 a string port's buffer.
4832 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4833 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4834 function pointers which together define the current random number
4835 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4836 number library functions.
4838 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4841 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4842 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4845 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4846 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4848 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4849 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4851 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4852 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4855 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4856 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4857 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4858 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4860 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4861 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4862 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4863 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4864 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4865 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4866 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4868 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4869 by libguile and the application.
4871 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4872 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4873 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4874 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4876 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4877 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4879 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4880 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4881 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4883 ** Random number library functions
4884 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4885 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4886 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4888 The default random state is stored in:
4890 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4891 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4892 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4897 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4899 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4900 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4901 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4902 isn't a random state.
4904 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4905 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4907 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4908 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4909 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4910 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4912 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4913 Return 32 random bits.
4915 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4916 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4918 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4919 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4921 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4922 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4924 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4925 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4927 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4928 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4929 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4933 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4935 * Changes to the distribution
4937 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4938 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4939 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4942 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4943 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4944 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4946 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4947 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4948 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4949 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4952 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4953 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4954 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4956 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4958 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4960 *** Function: batch-mode?
4962 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4965 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4967 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4968 case has not been implemented.
4970 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4971 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4972 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4975 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4976 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4978 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4980 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4982 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4984 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4985 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4988 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4989 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4990 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4991 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4994 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4996 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4997 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4998 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4999 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5000 find those libraries.
5002 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5003 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5006 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5008 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5009 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5010 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5011 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5013 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5014 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5015 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5019 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5021 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5022 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5023 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5026 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5027 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5028 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5029 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5031 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5032 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5035 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5036 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5037 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5038 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5039 compiler where to find the libraries.
5041 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5042 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5043 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5045 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5046 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5047 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5048 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5049 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5053 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5055 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5056 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5057 internationalization support.
5059 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5060 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5061 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5062 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5063 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5065 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5066 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5067 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5068 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5069 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5071 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5072 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5073 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5074 any GNU mirror site.
5076 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5078 ** New function: add-history STRING
5079 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5080 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5081 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5083 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5085 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5086 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5087 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5090 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5091 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5092 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5094 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5096 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5099 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5100 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5103 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5104 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5105 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5106 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5107 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5108 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5110 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5111 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5112 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5113 of the form mentioned above.
5115 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5116 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5117 returned in the special `rest' list.
5119 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5120 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5122 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5124 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5126 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5128 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5129 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5130 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5131 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5132 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5133 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5134 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5135 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5138 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5140 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5142 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5143 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5146 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5147 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5148 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5152 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5153 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5154 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5155 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5156 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5157 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5158 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5159 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5162 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5164 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5165 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5166 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5168 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5170 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5171 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5173 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5174 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5175 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5177 Why do we have this function?
5178 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5179 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5180 primitive, and display it differently, and
5181 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5182 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5185 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5186 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5189 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5190 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5191 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5192 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5194 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5195 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5198 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5199 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5201 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5203 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5204 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5205 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5206 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5207 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5208 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5209 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5212 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5214 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5215 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5217 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5218 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5219 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5220 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5221 properly continue the print chain.
5223 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5224 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5225 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5226 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5227 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5228 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5229 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5230 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5232 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5233 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5234 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5235 safest to not check for these pairs.
5237 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5238 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5239 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5240 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5242 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5244 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5245 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5247 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5249 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5251 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5252 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5253 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5255 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5256 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5257 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5259 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5260 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5261 the following functions and macros:
5263 Function: make-fluid
5265 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5266 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5267 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5268 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5269 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5271 Function: fluid? OBJ
5273 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5275 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5276 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5278 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5279 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5281 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5283 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5284 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5285 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5286 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5287 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5288 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5289 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5291 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5293 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5294 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5295 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5296 should evaluate to a fluid.
5298 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5300 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5301 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5302 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5303 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5304 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5306 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5309 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5311 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5313 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5315 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5318 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5319 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5320 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5321 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5322 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5325 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5326 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5327 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5329 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5330 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5331 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5333 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5334 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5335 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5336 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5338 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5339 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5340 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5341 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5343 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5344 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5345 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5346 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5348 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5349 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5350 their revealed counts set to zero.
5352 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5353 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5355 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5356 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5358 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5359 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5361 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5362 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5363 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5365 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5366 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5367 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5369 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5370 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5371 default environment inherited by child processes.
5373 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5374 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5375 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5377 The return value is unspecified.
5379 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5380 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5381 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5382 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5383 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5385 The return value is unspecified.
5387 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5388 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5396 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5397 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5400 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5403 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5404 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5405 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5407 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5408 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5409 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5410 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5413 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5414 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5416 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5417 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5418 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5419 the `environ' procedure.
5421 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5422 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5425 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5426 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5428 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5429 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5430 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5431 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5433 *** procedure: times
5434 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5435 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5436 return a selected component:
5439 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5443 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5446 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5450 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5451 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5455 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5456 terminated child processes.
5458 ** Removed: list-length
5459 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5460 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5462 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5464 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5466 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5468 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5469 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5470 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5471 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5473 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5474 extra complexity it introduces.
5476 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5477 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5479 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5480 variable to any non-empty value.
5482 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5483 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5485 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5487 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5488 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5490 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5492 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5493 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5495 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5497 ** vector handling routines
5499 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5500 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5501 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5502 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5503 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5505 ** pair and list routines
5507 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5510 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5512 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5515 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5517 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5519 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5520 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5521 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5522 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5523 site-specific initialization code.
5525 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5526 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5527 initialization processes.
5529 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5530 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5531 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5532 initialized properly.
5534 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5535 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5536 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5538 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5539 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5540 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5541 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5542 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5544 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5546 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5547 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5548 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5549 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5550 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5552 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5553 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5554 which look like this:
5557 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5559 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5560 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5563 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5564 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5567 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5569 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5570 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5571 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5573 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5574 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5575 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5576 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5577 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5579 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5580 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5582 int (*free) (SCM port);
5583 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5584 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5585 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5589 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5590 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5591 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5593 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5596 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5597 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5598 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5600 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5601 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5602 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5605 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5609 struct timeval *timeout);
5611 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5612 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5613 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5614 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5615 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5616 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5618 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5619 scm_catch_body_t body,
5621 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5624 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5625 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5626 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5627 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5628 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5629 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5631 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5633 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5636 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5637 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5638 spawning threads from application C code.
5640 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5641 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5642 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5643 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5644 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5645 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5647 ** Removed functions:
5649 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5650 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5652 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5654 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5655 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5657 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5659 ** mbstrings are now removed
5661 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5662 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5664 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5666 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5667 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5668 their new names and arguments:
5670 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5671 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5672 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5673 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5676 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5678 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5680 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5683 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5685 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5686 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5687 pass a #f arg to catch.
5689 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5691 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5692 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5695 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5696 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5697 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5698 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5699 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5700 reclaim its storage.
5702 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5703 worrying that some other function you call will call
5704 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5705 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5706 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5707 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5710 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5712 * Changes to the distribution
5714 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5715 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5718 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5719 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5721 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5722 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5724 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5726 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5727 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5728 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5730 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5732 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5733 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5734 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5735 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5736 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5737 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5739 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5740 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5741 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5744 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5745 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5746 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5747 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5749 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5750 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5751 libraries to your link command:
5753 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5754 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5755 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5756 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5758 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5759 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5760 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5762 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5764 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5765 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5768 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5770 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5771 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5772 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5773 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5774 searched is system dependent.
5776 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5778 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5780 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5782 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5783 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5785 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5787 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5788 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5789 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5790 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5791 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5794 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5796 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5797 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5798 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5799 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5800 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5802 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5804 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5805 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5807 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5809 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5810 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5811 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5814 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5816 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5817 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5818 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5819 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5821 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5822 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5824 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5826 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5827 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5829 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5831 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5832 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5840 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5842 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5843 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5844 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5845 a more informative way.
5847 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5848 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5849 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5850 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5851 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5852 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5854 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5855 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5858 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5859 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5860 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5863 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5864 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5865 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5866 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5867 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5868 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5870 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5871 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5872 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5873 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5876 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5877 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5878 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5879 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5880 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5881 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5883 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5884 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5885 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5886 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5887 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5889 *** regexp functions
5891 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5892 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5893 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5895 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5896 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5897 with SCSH regular expressions.
5899 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5900 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5901 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5902 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5904 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5905 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5906 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5907 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5909 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5910 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5911 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5912 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5913 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5914 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5916 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5917 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5918 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5919 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5920 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5922 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5924 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5925 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5926 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5927 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5929 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5930 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5931 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5933 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5934 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5936 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5939 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5940 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5941 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5943 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5944 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5945 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5947 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5948 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5949 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5950 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5951 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5954 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5956 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5957 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5958 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5959 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5960 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5961 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5963 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5964 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5965 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5967 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5968 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5971 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5972 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5974 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5975 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5976 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5977 may be one of the following arguments:
5979 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5981 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5983 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5984 the regexp match is written.
5986 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5987 following the regexp match is written.
5989 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5990 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5993 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5994 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5995 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5996 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5997 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5998 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6000 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6003 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6004 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6005 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6006 written out to PORT.
6008 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6009 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6010 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6011 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6012 will return after processing a single match.
6014 *** Match Structures
6016 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6017 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6018 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6019 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6020 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6021 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6024 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6025 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6026 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6027 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6028 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6030 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6031 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6032 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6034 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6035 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6036 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6037 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6038 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6040 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6041 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6043 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6044 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6046 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6047 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6049 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6050 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6052 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6053 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6054 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6055 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6057 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6058 Return the original TARGET string.
6060 *** Backslash Escapes
6062 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6063 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6064 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6065 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6066 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6067 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6069 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6070 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6071 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6072 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6073 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6074 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6075 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6076 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6078 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6079 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6080 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6081 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6082 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6083 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6084 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6086 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6087 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6088 return the resulting string.
6090 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6091 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6092 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6093 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6094 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6095 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6096 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6097 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6098 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6099 translated to the single character `*'.
6101 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6102 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6103 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6104 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6105 consecutive backslashes:
6107 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6109 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6110 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6111 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6113 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6114 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6115 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6116 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6117 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6118 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6120 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6122 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6123 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6124 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6125 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6126 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6127 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6128 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6129 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6130 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6131 cumbersome escape syntax.
6133 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6135 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6137 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6139 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6142 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6144 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6146 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6149 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6150 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6151 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6152 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6153 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6155 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6156 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6157 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6158 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6159 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6160 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6161 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6164 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6165 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6166 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6169 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6170 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6172 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6173 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6174 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6175 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6176 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6177 installed, you can say:
6179 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6182 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6184 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6185 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6186 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6187 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6188 new dynamic roots and threads.
6191 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6193 * Changes to the distribution.
6195 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6197 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6198 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6199 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6200 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6201 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6202 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6203 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6204 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6206 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6209 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6210 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6215 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6217 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6218 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6220 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6221 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6222 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6223 the (command-line) function.
6224 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6225 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6226 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6228 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6229 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6230 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6231 command line arguments
6232 -ds do -s script at this point
6233 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6234 -h, --help display this help and exit
6235 -v, --version display version information and exit
6236 \ read arguments from following script lines
6238 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6239 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6241 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6244 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6248 (main (command-line))
6250 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6252 ekko a speckled gecko
6254 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6255 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6256 following list of command-line arguments:
6258 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6260 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6261 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6262 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6263 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6264 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6266 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6268 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6270 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6271 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6274 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6275 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6276 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6277 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6279 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6280 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6281 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6282 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6284 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6288 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6292 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6294 ekko a speckled gecko
6296 Unix expands this into
6298 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6300 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6301 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6303 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6305 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6306 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6308 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6309 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6310 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6311 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6312 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6313 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6314 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6315 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6316 it only terminates the argument list.)
6317 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6318 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6319 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6320 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6321 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6322 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6323 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6324 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6326 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6328 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6329 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6330 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6331 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6332 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6334 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6335 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6336 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6338 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6340 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6341 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6342 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6343 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6346 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6347 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6348 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6350 * Changes to Scheme functions
6352 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6353 and disabled by default.
6355 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6356 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6357 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6358 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6360 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6362 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6364 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6365 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6367 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6368 (read-set! keywords #f)
6370 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6371 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6372 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6375 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6376 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6377 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6380 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6381 support for Scheme functions.
6383 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6384 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6385 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6386 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6389 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6390 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6391 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6394 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6395 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6396 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6399 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6400 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6401 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6402 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6403 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6404 display the result as a prompt.
6405 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6407 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6408 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6409 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6412 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6413 procedure of zero arguments.
6415 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6416 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6417 argument is bound in the current module.
6419 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6420 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6421 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6422 public bindings into the current module.
6424 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6425 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6427 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6428 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6430 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6431 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6433 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6434 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6436 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6437 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6439 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6440 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6441 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6442 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6443 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6445 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6446 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6447 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6448 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6450 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6453 ** Changes to I/O functions
6455 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6456 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6457 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6459 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6460 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6461 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6463 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6464 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6466 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6467 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6468 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6469 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6471 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6473 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6474 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6476 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6477 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6478 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6479 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6480 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6483 'trim omit delimiter from result
6484 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6485 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6486 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6488 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6490 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6491 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6493 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6494 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6495 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6496 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6497 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6499 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6500 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6501 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6503 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6504 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6505 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6506 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6508 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6509 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6511 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6512 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6514 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6516 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6517 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6518 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6519 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6520 a delimiting character.
6521 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6523 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6524 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6525 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6526 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6527 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6528 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6530 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6531 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6533 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6534 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6535 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6537 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6538 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6539 the array to read and write.
6541 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6542 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6545 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6547 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6550 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6551 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6552 Values for COMMAND are:
6554 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6555 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6556 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6557 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6558 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6559 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6560 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6561 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6563 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6565 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6566 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6567 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6568 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6569 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6570 corresponding return set will be the same.
6572 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6575 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6576 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6577 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6578 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6579 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6580 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6581 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6582 special file being created.
6584 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6585 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6587 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6588 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6589 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6590 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6591 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6592 and originating address.
6594 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6595 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6596 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6598 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6601 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6602 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6605 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6606 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6607 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6608 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6609 this function returns #f.
6611 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6612 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6613 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6616 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6617 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6618 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6621 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6622 a valid STATUS value.
6624 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6626 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6627 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6629 Component Accessor Setter
6630 ========================= ============ ============
6631 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6632 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6633 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6634 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6635 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6636 year tm:year set-tm:year
6637 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6638 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6639 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6640 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6641 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6643 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6644 describing the host system:
6647 ============================================== ================
6648 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6649 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6650 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6651 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6652 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6654 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6655 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6656 system's user database:
6659 ====================== =================
6660 user name passwd:name
6661 user password passwd:passwd
6664 real name passwd:gecos
6665 home directory passwd:dir
6666 shell program passwd:shell
6668 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6669 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6670 system's group database:
6673 ======================= ============
6674 group name group:name
6675 group password group:passwd
6677 group members group:mem
6679 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6680 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6684 ========================= ===============
6685 official name of host hostent:name
6686 alias list hostent:aliases
6687 host address type hostent:addrtype
6688 length of address hostent:length
6689 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6691 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6692 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6696 ========================= ===============
6697 official name of net netent:name
6698 alias list netent:aliases
6699 net number type netent:addrtype
6700 net number netent:net
6702 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6703 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6707 ========================= ===============
6708 official protocol name protoent:name
6709 alias list protoent:aliases
6710 protocol number protoent:proto
6712 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6713 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6717 ========================= ===============
6718 official service name servent:name
6719 alias list servent:aliases
6720 port number servent:port
6721 protocol to use servent:proto
6723 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6724 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6727 ======================================== ===============
6728 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6729 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6730 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6731 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6733 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6734 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6735 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6737 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6738 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6740 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6741 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6743 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6744 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6746 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6748 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6750 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6751 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6752 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6754 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6755 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6756 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6757 return the remaining characters as a string.
6759 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6760 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6761 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6763 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6765 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6767 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6770 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6773 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6774 and returns the array
6776 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6777 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6778 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6780 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6782 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6783 symbol's value from C code:
6785 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6786 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6787 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6788 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6790 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6791 without assigning them a value.
6793 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6794 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6795 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6797 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6798 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6799 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6801 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6802 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6804 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6805 doesn't actually care about that.
6807 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6808 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6809 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6811 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6812 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6813 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6814 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6815 which we have just created and initialized.
6817 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6818 should one occur. We call it like this:
6819 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6821 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6822 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6823 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6824 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6825 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6826 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6829 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6830 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6831 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6832 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6833 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6834 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6835 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6838 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6839 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6840 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6841 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6842 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6845 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6846 scm_internal_catch, except:
6848 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6849 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6850 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6851 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6854 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6855 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6856 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6858 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6859 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6860 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6861 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6864 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6865 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6866 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6868 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6869 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6870 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6871 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6872 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6874 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6875 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6876 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6878 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6879 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6880 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6882 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6883 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6885 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6886 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6887 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6890 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6891 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6892 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6893 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6894 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6895 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6896 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6899 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6900 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6902 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6903 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6904 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6905 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6906 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6909 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6910 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6912 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6913 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6916 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6917 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6919 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6922 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6923 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6924 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6925 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6926 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6927 given the following arguments:
6929 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6931 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6933 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6935 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6938 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6939 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6940 command-line arguments.
6942 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6943 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6944 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6945 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6946 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6947 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6950 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6953 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6954 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6956 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6957 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6959 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6960 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6961 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6962 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6964 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6965 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6967 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6968 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6969 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6970 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6972 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6973 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6975 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6976 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6978 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6980 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6981 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6982 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6985 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6986 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6988 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6989 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6994 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6997 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6999 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7000 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7001 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7002 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7004 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7006 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7008 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7009 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7010 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7011 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7012 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7013 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7014 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7015 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7016 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7017 for more information.
7019 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7020 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7022 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7023 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7024 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7025 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7026 following two lines at the top of the file:
7028 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7031 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7032 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7033 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7035 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7037 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7039 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7042 (display (car args))
7043 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7045 (loop (cdr args)))))
7048 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7049 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7050 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7051 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7052 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7053 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7057 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7060 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7063 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7065 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7066 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7067 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7068 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7069 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7072 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7073 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7074 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7075 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7076 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7079 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7082 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7083 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7084 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7087 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7088 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7089 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7091 to see a backtrace, and
7092 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7093 to see them by default.
7097 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7099 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7101 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7102 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7105 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7106 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7107 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7108 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7111 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7112 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7113 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7114 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7115 functions which inspired them.
7117 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7118 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7122 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7124 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7126 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7127 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7130 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7131 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7132 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7134 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7135 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7136 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7137 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7138 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7140 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7142 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7143 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7144 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7147 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7150 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7152 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7153 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7154 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7155 above should serve their purposes.
7157 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7158 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7159 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7160 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7162 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7165 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7166 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7167 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7168 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7170 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7171 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7172 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7173 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7175 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7176 for the `read' function.
7179 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7180 to that of `integer?'.
7182 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7183 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7185 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7186 it simply returns the object's property list.
7188 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7189 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7190 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7191 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7193 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7195 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7198 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7200 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7201 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7203 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7205 void (*main_func) (),
7208 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7209 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7210 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7211 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7212 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7214 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7215 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7216 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7217 know which arguments have been processed.
7219 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7220 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7221 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7222 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7223 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7225 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7226 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7227 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7228 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7229 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7230 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7231 people from making that mistake.
7233 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7234 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7236 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7238 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7242 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7245 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7246 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7247 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7248 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7251 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7252 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7253 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7254 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7257 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7258 have been added to the Guile library.
7260 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7261 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7262 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7265 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7266 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7267 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7269 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7270 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7271 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7272 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7273 argument from the list.
7276 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7279 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7280 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7282 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7283 to a Scheme port object.
7285 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7286 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7291 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7293 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7294 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7295 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7296 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7297 code as a special datatype.
7299 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7300 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7301 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7302 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7303 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7306 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7307 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7308 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7309 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7310 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7312 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7315 Copyright information:
7317 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7319 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7320 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7321 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7322 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7324 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7325 of this document, or of portions of it,
7326 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7327 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7332 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"