1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org. Note that you
6 must be subscribed to this list first, in order to successfully send a
12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
15 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
21 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
22 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
24 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
25 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
27 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
28 This slightly improves program startup times.
30 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
31 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
33 * Changes to the C interface
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
45 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
47 * New features (see the manual for details)
49 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
51 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
53 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
54 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
55 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
59 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
60 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
61 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
62 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
63 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
64 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
65 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
68 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
70 * Infrastructure changes
72 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
74 The new repository can be accessed using
75 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
76 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
78 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
80 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
82 * New modules (see the manual for details)
86 * New features (see the manual for details)
88 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
89 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
90 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
92 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
93 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
94 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
95 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
97 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
99 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
100 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
101 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
105 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
106 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
108 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
109 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
111 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
112 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
114 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
115 lead to a stack overflow.
117 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
118 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
119 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
120 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
121 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
122 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
123 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
124 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
125 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
126 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
127 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
128 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
129 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
130 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
131 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
132 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
134 * Changes to the distribution
138 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
139 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
142 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
146 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
147 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
148 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
149 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
150 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
151 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
152 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
153 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
154 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
155 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
156 system and library calls.
157 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
158 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
159 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
160 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
161 uniform vectors on AIX.
162 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
163 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
164 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
165 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
166 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
168 * New modules (see the manual for details)
172 * Documentation fixes and improvements
174 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
176 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
177 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
179 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
181 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
183 * Changes to the distribution
185 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
187 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
188 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
189 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
191 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
193 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
196 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
198 * New modules (see the manual for details)
205 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
206 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
207 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
208 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
209 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
210 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
211 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
213 * Implementation improvements
215 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
216 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
220 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
222 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
224 ** set-program-arguments
229 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
230 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
231 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
232 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
233 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
234 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
236 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
237 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
238 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
239 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
240 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
241 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
242 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
243 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
244 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
245 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
246 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
247 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
248 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
249 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
250 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
251 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
254 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
256 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
258 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
260 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
261 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
262 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
263 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
264 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
265 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
271 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
275 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
277 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
279 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
281 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
283 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
285 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
287 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
288 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
289 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
291 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
293 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
295 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
296 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
298 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
300 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
301 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
303 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
305 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
307 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
309 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
311 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
313 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
315 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
317 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
319 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
321 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
322 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
323 file was on a different device.
326 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
328 * Changes to the distribution
330 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
332 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
334 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
336 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
338 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
340 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
343 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
345 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
346 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
347 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
348 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
349 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
350 items like the versioned share directory name
351 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
353 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
354 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
355 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
356 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
357 with each micro release during a stable series.
359 ** Thread implementation has changed.
361 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
362 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
363 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
364 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
365 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
368 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
369 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
370 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
371 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
374 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
375 in which case "null" threads are used.
377 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
378 "Blocking", and others.
380 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
382 This is a milder form of deprecation.
384 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
385 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
386 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
387 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
388 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
390 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
391 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
393 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
395 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
396 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
398 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
401 This SRFI is always available.
403 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
405 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
406 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
407 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
408 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
411 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
413 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
414 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
415 parameters without currying.
417 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
419 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
420 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
422 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
423 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
426 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
427 with a renaming import, for example.
429 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
431 The official version is good enough now.
433 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
435 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
436 provided. Use 'make html'.
438 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
440 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
441 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
442 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
443 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
445 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
447 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
450 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
452 ** New command line option `-L'.
454 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
456 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
458 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
459 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
461 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
463 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
464 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
466 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
468 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
469 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
472 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
475 (define-module (demo)
479 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
482 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
484 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
486 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
487 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
488 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
490 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
492 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
493 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
495 ** New function hashx-remove!
497 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
499 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
500 barriers and dynamic states.
502 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
503 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
504 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
507 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
508 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
509 Barriers" in the manual.
511 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
512 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
514 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
516 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
517 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
518 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
521 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
523 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
524 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
526 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
527 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
528 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
530 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
531 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
533 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
534 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
535 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
537 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
538 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
539 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
542 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
543 substrings and read-only strings.
545 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
546 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
549 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
551 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
560 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
561 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
562 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
564 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
565 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
566 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
569 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
570 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
573 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
575 See the manual for details.
577 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
579 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
582 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
584 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
585 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
586 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
587 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
589 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
590 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
591 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
594 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
596 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
597 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
608 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
612 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
617 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
621 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
625 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
628 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
629 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
630 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
631 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
633 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
634 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
637 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
640 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
644 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
646 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
647 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
648 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
651 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
654 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
656 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
659 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
660 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
668 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
669 has been detected is to
671 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
672 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
673 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
676 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
679 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
681 to your .guile init file.
683 ** New define-module option: :replace
685 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
688 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
689 for the core binding `format'.
691 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
693 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
694 a prefix to all imported bindings.
697 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
699 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
702 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
704 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
705 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
706 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
708 ** New function: effective-version
710 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
711 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
712 to the distribution" above.
714 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
716 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
717 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
719 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
721 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
722 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
724 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
726 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
727 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
730 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
732 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
734 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
736 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
737 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
738 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
741 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
742 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
743 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
746 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
747 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
749 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
750 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
751 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
754 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
756 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
757 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
760 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
761 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
763 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
764 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
765 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
766 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
767 level for the current thread.
769 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
771 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
773 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
774 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
777 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
779 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
781 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
784 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
786 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
789 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
790 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
791 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
793 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
794 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
795 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
796 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
807 ERROR: Numerical overflow
809 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
812 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
814 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
815 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
816 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
827 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
829 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
830 them is also done exactly, of course:
835 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
838 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
839 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
841 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
843 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
844 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
845 equal to a floating point number. For example:
847 (inexact->exact 1.234)
848 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
850 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
852 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
855 ** New function 'rationalize'.
857 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
858 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
860 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
863 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
864 result when both its arguments are exact.
866 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
868 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
869 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
870 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
872 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
874 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
875 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
876 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
878 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
881 ** pretty-print has more options.
883 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
884 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
885 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
887 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
889 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
890 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
891 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
893 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
895 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
896 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
898 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
900 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
901 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
904 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
906 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
907 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
908 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
909 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
910 without the soft port blocking.
912 ** Deprecated: undefine
914 There is no replacement for undefine.
916 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
917 have been discouraged.
919 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
920 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
921 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
924 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
926 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
928 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
929 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
930 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
931 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
934 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
935 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
936 be removed in the next major Guile release.
938 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
940 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
941 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
942 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
943 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
944 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
945 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
947 * Changes to the C interface
949 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
950 take a 'delete' function argument.
952 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
953 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
955 This is an incompatible change.
957 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
959 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
960 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
961 --disable-deprecated.
963 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
965 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
966 Scheme values has been added.
968 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
969 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
974 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
975 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
977 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
979 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
980 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
983 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
985 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
986 scm_from_int for ints.
988 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
989 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
990 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
992 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
994 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
995 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
996 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
999 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1001 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1003 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1005 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1006 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1007 following alternatives.
1009 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1010 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1011 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1012 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1014 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1015 do the validating for you.
1017 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1018 have been discouraged.
1020 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1021 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1024 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1026 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1027 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1030 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1032 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1035 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1038 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1040 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1041 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1043 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1044 scm_truncate_number should have.
1046 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1047 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1049 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1052 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1053 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1054 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1056 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1057 easier to use from C.
1059 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1060 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1062 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1063 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1064 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1067 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1068 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1069 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1070 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1073 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1074 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1075 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1076 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1077 and is thus quite efficient.
1079 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1081 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1082 about the character encoding.
1084 Replace according to the following table:
1086 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1087 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1088 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1089 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1090 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1091 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1092 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1093 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1094 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1096 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1097 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1099 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1101 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1102 now also available to C code.
1104 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1106 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1107 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1108 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1110 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1113 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1115 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1116 unceremoniously removed.
1118 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1119 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1120 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1122 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1123 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1124 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1125 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1126 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1127 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1130 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1132 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1133 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1134 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1135 manual for more details.
1137 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1138 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1140 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1141 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1142 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1144 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1146 Migrate according to the following table:
1148 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1149 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1150 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1151 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1152 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1153 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1154 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1156 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1157 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1158 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1159 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1160 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1161 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1162 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1164 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1166 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1167 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1169 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1170 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1171 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1172 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1174 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1176 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1177 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1178 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1180 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1181 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1183 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1184 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1185 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1186 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1188 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1190 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1191 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1192 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1193 prevent a potential memory leak:
1200 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1202 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1203 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1205 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1206 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1213 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1214 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1218 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1220 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1222 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1223 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1224 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1226 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1227 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1229 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1231 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1233 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1234 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1235 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1237 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1238 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1240 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1241 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1242 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1243 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1246 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1248 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1249 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1250 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1252 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1254 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1255 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1257 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1259 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1260 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1262 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1264 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1265 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1266 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1268 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1270 You should not have used them.
1272 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1274 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1275 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1277 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1279 This macro is not intended for public use.
1281 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1283 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1285 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1287 Use scm_is_real instead.
1289 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1291 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1293 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1295 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1296 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1298 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1299 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1301 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1302 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1304 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1306 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1309 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1311 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1312 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1313 to the distribution" above.
1315 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1317 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1318 arguments are now passed directly:
1320 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1322 This is an incompatible change.
1324 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1326 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1327 function in the init section.
1329 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1331 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1333 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1334 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1335 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1336 stays roughly constant.
1338 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1339 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1340 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1341 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1342 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1345 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1346 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1347 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1348 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1350 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1351 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1352 objects for every type.
1355 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1357 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1359 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1361 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1362 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1363 initializes a new cell (see below).
1365 ** New functions for memory management
1367 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1368 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1369 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1370 cause aborts in long running programs.
1372 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1373 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1375 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1376 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1377 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1378 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1379 details and for upgrading instructions.
1381 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1382 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1383 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1385 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1387 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1388 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1389 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1390 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1391 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1393 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1394 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1395 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1397 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1398 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1400 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1402 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1403 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1404 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1405 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1406 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1408 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1410 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1413 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1415 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1417 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1419 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1420 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1422 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1424 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1425 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1427 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1428 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1430 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1432 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1434 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1435 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1436 blocking it is not well defined.
1438 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1440 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1441 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1442 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1443 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1444 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1445 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1446 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1447 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1448 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1449 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1450 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1451 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1452 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1453 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1454 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1455 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1456 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1457 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1458 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1459 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1460 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1461 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1462 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1463 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1464 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1465 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1466 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1467 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1468 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1469 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1470 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1472 * Changes to bundled modules
1476 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1477 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1478 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1479 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1480 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1483 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1485 * Changes to the distribution
1487 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1489 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1491 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1492 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1493 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1494 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1495 indicate major changes in Guile.
1497 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1498 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1499 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1500 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1502 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1503 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1504 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1505 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1506 micro version number.
1508 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1510 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1512 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1513 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1515 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1517 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1518 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1519 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1521 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1523 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1524 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1525 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1528 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1530 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1533 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1535 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1536 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1538 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1540 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1541 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1544 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1546 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1549 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1552 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1554 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1556 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1557 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1558 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1560 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1562 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1564 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1567 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1569 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1571 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1573 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1574 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1575 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1577 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1579 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1581 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1582 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1591 See README there for more info.
1593 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1594 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1597 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1599 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1601 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1603 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1604 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1605 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1607 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1609 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1610 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1611 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1613 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1614 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1616 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1619 (oop goops describe)
1621 (oop goops active-slot)
1622 (oop goops composite-slot)
1624 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1625 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1626 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1628 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1630 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1631 in the default environment:
1633 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1634 %read-line write-line
1636 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1637 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1639 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1641 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1644 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1645 can be used for similar functionality.
1647 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1649 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1650 it defines two procedures:
1652 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1654 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1655 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1656 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1659 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1661 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1662 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1663 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1664 write large strings.
1666 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1668 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1669 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1671 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1673 for complete documentation.
1675 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1677 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1678 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1679 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1680 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1682 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1683 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1687 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1688 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1689 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1692 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1695 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1696 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1698 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1699 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1702 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1705 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1707 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1709 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1711 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1713 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1714 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1715 Scheme programs easier.
1717 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1718 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1719 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1720 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1721 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1724 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1725 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1727 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1730 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1732 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1733 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1734 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1737 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1739 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1741 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1742 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1743 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1744 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1745 was also ASCII, for example.
1747 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1749 tag - no replacement.
1750 fseek - replaced by seek.
1751 list* - replaced by cons*.
1753 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1757 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1758 (define m (make-safe-module))
1759 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1760 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1761 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1763 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1765 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1766 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1767 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1769 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1771 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1772 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1773 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1774 from the issues related to the module system.
1776 *** New function: load-extension
1778 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1780 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1782 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1783 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1784 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1786 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1788 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1789 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1790 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1791 support dynamic linking).
1793 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1795 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1796 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1797 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1798 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1801 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1802 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1803 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1804 library and initialize it explicitly.
1806 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1807 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1809 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1811 (define-module (foo bar))
1813 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1815 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1817 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1818 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1820 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1821 (null-environment 5)
1822 (interaction-environment)
1828 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1830 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1831 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1832 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1833 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1835 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1836 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1837 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1838 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1839 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1840 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1841 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1842 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1843 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1844 one eval to the next.
1846 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1847 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1848 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1849 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1850 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1852 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1853 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1854 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1855 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1856 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1857 used in a lexical environment.
1859 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1860 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1861 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1862 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1863 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1864 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1866 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1868 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1869 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1870 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1871 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1872 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1874 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1875 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1876 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1878 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1879 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1881 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1882 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1883 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1885 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1886 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1888 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1889 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1890 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1891 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1894 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1895 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1896 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1897 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1899 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1900 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1901 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1903 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1904 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1905 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1906 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1907 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1909 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1911 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1912 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1913 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1915 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1916 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1917 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1919 See manual for more info.
1921 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1923 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1924 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1925 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1927 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1929 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1930 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1931 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1933 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1934 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1935 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1936 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1938 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1940 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1941 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1943 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1944 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1945 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1946 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1947 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1950 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1951 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1952 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1953 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1954 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1955 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1957 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1958 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1959 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1960 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1961 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1963 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1964 objects are usually permanent.
1966 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1967 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1969 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1971 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1972 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1975 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1979 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1984 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1986 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1987 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1988 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1989 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1991 ** New function `make-object-property'
1993 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1994 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1998 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1999 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2003 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2004 source properties eventually.
2006 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2008 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2009 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2010 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2012 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2013 will be removed in the next release.
2015 ** New define-module option: pure
2017 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2022 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2025 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2027 Export names NAME1 ...
2029 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2030 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2034 (define-module (foo)
2036 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2039 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2044 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2046 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2048 ** New function: port? X
2050 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2051 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2053 ** New function: file-port?
2055 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2057 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2059 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2060 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2061 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2062 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2063 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2065 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2067 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2068 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2069 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2070 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2071 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2074 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2076 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2077 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2078 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2079 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2082 ** New function: crypt password salt
2084 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2087 ** New function: chroot path
2089 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2091 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2093 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2096 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2098 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2100 ** New function: getpass prompt
2102 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2105 ** New function: flock file operation
2107 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2109 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2111 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2114 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2116 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2117 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2118 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2119 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2120 of the temporary file.
2122 ** New function: open-input-string string
2124 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2125 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2126 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2128 ** New function: open-output-string
2130 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2131 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2133 ** New function: get-output-string
2135 Return the contents of an output string port.
2137 ** New function: identity
2139 Return the argument.
2141 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2142 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2144 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2146 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2147 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2148 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2151 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2152 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2154 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2156 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2157 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2158 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2161 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2162 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2163 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2167 Use `identity' instead.
2173 ** Deprecated: return-it
2177 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2179 Use `string-length' instead.
2181 ** Deprecated: flags
2183 Use `logior' instead.
2185 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2187 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2188 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2189 port-for-each is more flexible.
2191 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2192 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2193 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2195 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2197 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2199 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2201 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2203 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2205 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2206 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2208 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2209 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2211 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2212 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2214 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2216 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2217 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2219 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2220 Use module system operations for all variables.
2222 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2224 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2227 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2229 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2230 The following bugs have been fixed:
2232 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2233 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2236 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2237 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2238 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2240 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2241 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2243 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2244 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2247 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2248 The expansion used to be like so:
2250 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2252 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2254 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2256 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2257 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2259 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2261 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2262 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2263 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2267 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2268 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2270 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2275 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2276 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2278 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2279 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2280 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2282 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2285 * Changes to the C interface
2287 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2289 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2290 with "_t". What a concept.
2292 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2294 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2296 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2300 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2301 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2303 *** C Functions removed
2305 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2306 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2307 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2308 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2309 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2310 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2311 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2313 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2315 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2317 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2319 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2321 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2322 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2324 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2326 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2329 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2331 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2333 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2335 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2336 Evaluation" in the manual.
2338 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2340 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2341 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2343 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2345 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2346 Constructors" in the manual.
2348 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2350 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2351 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2353 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2355 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2357 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2358 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2359 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2361 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2363 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2365 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2366 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2367 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2370 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2372 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2374 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2375 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2377 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2379 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2380 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2381 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2382 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2384 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2385 scm_primitive_property_ref
2386 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2387 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2389 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2390 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2392 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2394 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2395 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2396 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2397 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2399 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2401 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2402 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2403 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2404 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2405 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2406 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2407 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2409 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2410 scm_remember_upto_here
2412 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2414 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2416 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2417 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2419 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2421 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2423 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2425 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2427 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2429 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2430 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2431 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2432 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2433 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2434 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2436 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2438 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2440 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2441 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2442 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2444 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2446 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2447 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2448 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2450 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2452 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2453 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2456 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2459 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2460 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2463 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2465 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2467 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2469 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2471 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2473 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2475 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2476 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2477 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2478 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2479 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2480 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2481 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2482 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2483 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2484 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2485 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2486 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2487 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2488 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2489 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2491 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2492 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2493 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2494 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2495 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2496 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2497 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2498 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2499 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2500 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2501 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2502 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2503 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2504 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2505 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2506 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2507 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2508 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2509 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2510 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2511 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2512 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2513 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2514 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2515 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2516 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2517 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2518 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2519 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2521 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2523 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2525 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2526 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2528 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2530 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2532 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2534 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2536 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2538 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2540 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2542 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2544 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2547 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2548 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2550 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2552 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2554 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2556 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2558 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2560 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2562 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2564 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2567 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2569 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2571 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2573 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2574 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2576 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2577 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2579 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2581 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2582 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2583 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2585 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2587 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2589 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2590 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2592 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2593 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2594 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2595 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2597 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2598 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2599 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2601 Use the new ones from above instead.
2603 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2605 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2606 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2607 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2609 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2610 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2612 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2613 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2616 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2617 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2619 Use the new functions instead.
2621 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2624 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2626 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2628 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2631 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2633 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2636 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2638 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2641 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2642 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2643 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2645 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2647 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2648 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2650 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2651 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2652 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2653 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2656 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2658 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2659 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2660 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2661 inexact for an exact.
2663 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2664 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2665 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2668 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2669 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2670 accept an inexact argument.
2672 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2673 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2675 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2678 ** New number validation macros:
2679 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2683 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2685 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2686 scm_unprotect_object.
2688 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2690 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2692 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2695 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2697 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2701 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2703 * Changes to the distribution
2705 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2707 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2708 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2709 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2710 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2711 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2712 obtain these programs.
2713 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2714 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2716 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2717 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2718 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2719 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2720 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2722 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2723 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2724 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2725 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2729 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2732 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2733 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2734 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2735 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2737 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2739 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2741 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2742 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2744 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2745 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2747 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2748 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2750 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2751 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2752 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2753 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2755 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2757 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2761 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2762 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2764 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2766 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2767 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2769 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2770 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2771 number of objects of that kind.
2773 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2775 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2776 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2777 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2778 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2779 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2781 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2783 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2785 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2787 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2790 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2792 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2794 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2796 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2798 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2800 ** New command line option --debug
2802 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2804 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2806 ** New help facility
2808 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2809 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2810 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2811 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2812 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2813 (help) gives this text
2815 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2816 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2818 Examples: (help help)
2820 (help "output-string")
2822 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2824 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2826 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2827 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2830 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2831 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2832 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2835 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2836 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2837 use absolute filenames when possible.
2839 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2840 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2841 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2844 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2846 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2847 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2848 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2849 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2851 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2853 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2855 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2856 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2857 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2859 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2860 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2861 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2863 (read-enable 'positions)
2864 (debug-enable 'debug)
2866 ** Backtraces in scripts
2868 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2872 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2874 at the top of the script.
2876 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2877 The second enables backtraces.)
2879 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2881 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2882 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2883 substantially faster than before.
2885 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2886 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2888 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2889 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2891 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2893 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2894 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2895 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2897 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2898 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2899 when this hook is run in the future.
2901 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2902 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2904 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2906 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2907 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2910 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2911 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2912 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2914 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2915 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2917 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2918 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2920 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2921 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2922 in order not to need further allocation.)
2924 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2927 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2928 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2929 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2930 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2932 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2934 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2937 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2939 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2942 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2943 GC in percent of total heap size
2946 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2947 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2949 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2951 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2952 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2954 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2956 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2957 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2959 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2961 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2962 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2966 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2967 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2969 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2971 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2973 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2975 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2977 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2979 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2980 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2982 (simple-format port message . args)
2983 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2984 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2985 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2986 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2987 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2988 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2989 Does not add a trailing newline."
2991 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2993 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2994 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2996 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2997 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2999 ** Deprecated: list*
3001 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3003 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3005 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3006 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3008 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3009 is returned as result.
3011 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3013 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3015 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3017 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3018 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3021 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3023 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3025 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3026 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3028 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3030 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3032 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3034 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3036 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3038 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3040 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3042 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3043 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3044 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3046 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3049 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3051 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3052 the readability of argument checking.
3054 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3056 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3058 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3060 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3061 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3062 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3063 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3064 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3065 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3066 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3068 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3070 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3072 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3073 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3075 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3077 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3078 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3081 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3083 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3084 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3085 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3087 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3088 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3089 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3091 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3092 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3093 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3094 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3095 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3096 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3097 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3099 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3100 scm_end_input (object);
3101 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3102 ptob->flush (object);
3104 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3105 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3108 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3110 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3112 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3113 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3114 removed in a future version.
3116 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3118 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3119 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3120 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3121 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3123 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3124 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3126 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3129 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3131 in your configure.in.
3133 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3138 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3144 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3146 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3150 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3151 (define make-message string-append)
3153 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3155 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3159 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3164 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3168 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3170 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3171 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3173 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3175 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3176 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3177 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3178 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3179 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3180 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3182 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3183 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3184 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3186 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3187 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3188 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3191 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3192 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3193 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3194 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3195 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3197 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3198 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3199 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3200 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3201 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3202 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3203 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3205 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3207 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3208 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3209 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3211 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3212 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3213 KEY in the calling thread.
3215 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3216 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3217 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3218 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3219 associated with the key.
3221 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3223 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3224 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3226 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3228 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3229 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3230 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3232 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3234 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3235 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3237 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3239 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3241 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3242 returned is undefined.
3244 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3245 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3246 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3248 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3249 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3250 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3252 ** New C level GC hooks
3254 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3256 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3259 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3260 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3261 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3263 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3264 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3265 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3267 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3268 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3271 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3273 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3274 allocation parameters
3276 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3277 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3278 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3282 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3283 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3284 scm_default_max_segment_size
3286 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3288 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3289 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3291 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3293 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3294 object and count on the object being protected until
3295 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3297 The functions also have better time complexity.
3299 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3300 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3301 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3302 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3303 are no longer needed.
3305 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3307 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3308 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3309 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3310 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3312 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3314 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3316 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3318 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3319 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3320 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3321 until this issue has been settled.
3323 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3325 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3327 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3330 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3332 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3334 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3335 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3336 descriptors were checked.
3338 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3339 atomically written to a pipe.
3341 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3342 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3343 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3344 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3345 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3346 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3347 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3350 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3351 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3352 is changed without calling tzset.
3354 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3356 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3357 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3358 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3360 (define write-network-long
3361 (lambda (value port)
3362 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3363 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3364 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3366 (define read-network-long
3368 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3369 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3370 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3372 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3373 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3375 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3376 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3377 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3378 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3380 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3381 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3382 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3383 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3387 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3389 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3393 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3394 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3395 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3401 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3402 for a description of available commands.
3404 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3405 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3406 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3408 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3410 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3411 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3413 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3415 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3417 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3418 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3419 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3420 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3421 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3422 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3425 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3427 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3428 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3429 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3430 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3432 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3433 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3435 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3437 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3439 ** Readline support has changed again.
3441 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3442 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3443 to activate readline is now
3445 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3448 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3450 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3451 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3452 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3455 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3456 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3457 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3460 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3461 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3462 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3463 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3464 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3465 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3467 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3468 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3470 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3472 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3473 object it receives is the same string passed to
3474 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3475 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3476 string, not the suffix.
3478 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3479 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3480 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3482 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3484 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3485 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3486 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3487 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3490 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3492 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3494 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3495 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3496 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3497 appear from left to right.
3499 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3502 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3504 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3505 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3507 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3511 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3513 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3515 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3517 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3518 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3519 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3521 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3523 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3525 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3527 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3530 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3532 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3533 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3534 mentioning it here anyway.
3536 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3538 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3539 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3540 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3541 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3544 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3546 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3548 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3550 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3551 otherwise return #f.
3553 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3555 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3556 returned by `opendir'.
3558 ** New function: using-readline?
3560 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3562 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3564 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3565 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3567 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3569 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3571 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3572 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3573 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3575 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3577 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3578 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3580 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3582 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3583 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3584 documentation slots are not yet used.
3586 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3588 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3589 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3590 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3595 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3596 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3597 (string-append x y))
3599 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3600 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3602 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3603 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3604 be made in a clean way.]
3606 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3608 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3610 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3612 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3613 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3615 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3617 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3619 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3621 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3623 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3624 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3625 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3626 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3629 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3631 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3633 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3635 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3637 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3638 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3640 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3642 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3644 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3646 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3648 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3649 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3650 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3651 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3652 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3653 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3655 This should not make any difference for most users.
3657 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3659 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3660 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3662 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3664 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3665 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3666 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3667 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3668 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3670 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3672 It is now replaced by:
3674 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3676 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3677 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3679 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3681 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3682 This might change when we get the new module system.
3684 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3688 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3690 * Changes to mailing lists
3692 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3694 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3697 * Changes to the distribution
3699 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3701 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3702 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3703 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3704 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3705 you explicitly specify it.
3707 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3708 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3709 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3710 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3711 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3714 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3715 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3716 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3717 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3719 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3720 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3721 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3724 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3726 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3729 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3731 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3733 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3734 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3735 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3736 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3738 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3739 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3742 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3744 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3745 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3746 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3747 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3748 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3749 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3750 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3751 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3763 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3764 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3765 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3766 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3767 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3772 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3773 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3781 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3786 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3787 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3790 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3791 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3792 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3793 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3795 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3797 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3799 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3800 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3802 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3804 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3806 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3807 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3809 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3812 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3814 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3816 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3818 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3820 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3822 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3824 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3825 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3826 when the hook was created.
3828 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3829 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3830 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3831 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3832 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3833 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3834 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3835 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3836 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3838 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3839 the dlopen family of functions.
3841 ** New function `provided?'
3843 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3844 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3845 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3846 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3848 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3850 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3851 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3852 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3853 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3856 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3857 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3858 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3859 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3861 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3862 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3863 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3866 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3867 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3868 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3869 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3870 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3871 but with the flag set.
3873 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3875 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3876 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3878 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3879 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3880 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3881 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3882 available Scheme format implementations.
3884 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3885 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3886 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3887 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3888 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3889 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3890 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3891 output is to the current error port if available by the
3892 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3895 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3896 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3897 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3898 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3899 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3900 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3901 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3902 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3904 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3905 be executed at a time.
3908 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3910 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3911 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3912 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3914 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3915 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3916 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3917 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3918 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3919 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3920 general form of a directive is:
3922 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3924 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3926 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3928 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3929 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3930 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3933 Any (print as `display' does).
3937 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3941 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3945 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3951 print number sign always.
3954 print comma separated.
3956 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3962 print number sign always.
3965 print comma separated.
3967 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3973 print number sign always.
3976 print comma separated.
3978 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3984 print number sign always.
3987 print comma separated.
3989 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3994 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3998 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4001 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4004 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4007 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4012 prints `y' and `ies'.
4015 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4018 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4023 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4027 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4030 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4031 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4033 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4036 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4037 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4039 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4042 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4044 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4046 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4049 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4051 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4053 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4056 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4059 The sign appears before the padding.
4067 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4069 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4074 print N page separators.
4084 newline is ignored, white space left.
4087 newline is left, white space ignored.
4092 relative tabulation.
4098 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4100 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4103 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4105 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4108 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4111 converts by `string-upcase'.
4114 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4116 jumps N arguments forward.
4119 jumps 1 argument backward.
4122 jumps N arguments backward.
4125 jumps to the 0th argument.
4128 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4130 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4131 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4133 take argument from N.
4136 true test conditional.
4139 if-else-then conditional.
4145 default clause follows.
4148 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4150 at most N iterations.
4153 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4156 args from the rest of arguments.
4159 args from the rest args (lists).
4170 aborts if N <= M <= K
4172 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4175 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4178 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4184 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4186 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4188 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4189 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4190 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4191 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4192 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4193 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4197 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4201 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4207 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4210 Print a `#\space' character
4212 print N `#\space' characters.
4215 Print a `#\tab' character
4217 print N `#\tab' characters.
4220 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4221 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4222 must be a positive decimal number.
4225 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4226 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4227 be processed by `read'.
4230 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4231 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4232 be processed by `read'.
4235 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4238 prints format version.
4241 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4242 and format it accordingly.
4244 *** Configuration Variables
4246 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4247 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4248 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4249 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4252 format:symbol-case-conv
4253 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4254 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4255 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4256 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4257 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4259 format:iobj-case-conv
4260 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4261 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4264 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4267 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4273 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4274 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4275 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4276 `format' padding style.
4279 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4280 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4281 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4282 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4286 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4287 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4288 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4291 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4292 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4293 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4294 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4295 parameters or modifiers)).
4298 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4300 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4302 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4303 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4305 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4306 string-downcase! functions.
4308 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4309 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4311 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4314 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4317 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4318 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4320 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4322 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4323 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4325 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4326 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4327 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4328 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4329 would if STRING were input.
4331 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4333 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4334 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4335 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4336 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4339 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4341 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4342 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4345 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4347 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4348 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4350 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4351 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4353 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4354 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4355 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4356 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4358 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4359 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4361 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4362 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4363 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4365 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4366 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4368 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4369 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4370 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4371 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4372 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4374 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4375 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4376 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4377 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4378 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4379 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4381 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4382 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4383 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4386 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4387 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4388 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4389 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4390 the following grammar:
4391 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4392 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4393 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4394 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4395 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4396 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4397 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4398 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4399 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4400 last option in its combination)
4402 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4403 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4404 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4405 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4407 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4408 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4409 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4411 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4412 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4413 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4415 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4416 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4417 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4418 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4419 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4420 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4421 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4422 ordinary argument strings.
4424 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4425 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4426 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4427 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4429 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4430 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4432 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4433 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4434 - a required option is omitted
4435 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4436 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4437 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4438 - an option predicate fails
4443 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4446 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4447 (verbose (required? #f)
4450 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4451 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4452 (predicate ,string?))))
4454 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4455 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4457 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4458 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4459 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4460 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4463 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4465 It will be removed in a few releases.
4467 ** New syntax: lambda*
4468 ** New syntax: define*
4469 ** New syntax: define*-public
4470 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4471 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4472 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4474 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4475 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4476 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4477 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4478 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4480 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4481 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4482 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4484 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4486 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4487 and examples for `lambda*':
4490 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4492 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4493 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4494 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4495 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4496 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4497 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4498 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4499 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4501 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4503 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4504 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4505 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4506 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4508 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4509 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4510 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4511 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4512 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4513 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4514 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4515 and until the procedure is called.
4517 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4519 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4520 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4521 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4522 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4523 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4524 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4525 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4526 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4527 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4528 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4530 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4531 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4532 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4533 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4536 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4538 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4539 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4540 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4541 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4543 ** New syntax: and-let*
4544 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4546 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4547 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4548 (<variable> <expression>)
4551 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4552 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4553 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4556 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4557 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4558 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4559 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4560 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4561 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4562 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4564 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4565 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4566 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4567 shadow earlier bindings.
4569 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4571 ** New sorting functions
4573 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4574 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4575 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4576 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4578 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4579 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4582 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4583 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4584 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4586 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4587 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4588 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4589 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4591 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4592 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4593 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4594 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4595 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4598 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4599 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4600 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4601 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4602 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4603 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4605 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4606 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4607 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4609 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4610 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4611 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4614 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4615 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4616 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4618 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4619 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4621 ** New built-in random number support
4623 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4624 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4625 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4626 returned have a uniform distribution.
4628 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4629 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4630 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4631 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4632 effect of the `random' operation.
4634 *** New variable: *random-state*
4635 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4636 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4637 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4638 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4639 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4642 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4643 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4644 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4645 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4646 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4648 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4649 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4650 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4651 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4652 initialized using SEED.
4654 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4655 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4656 range between 0 and 1.
4658 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4659 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4660 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4661 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4662 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4663 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4664 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4666 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4667 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4668 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4669 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4670 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4671 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4673 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4674 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4675 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4676 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4678 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4679 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4680 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4681 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4683 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4684 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4685 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4687 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4689 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4692 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4693 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4696 ** New function: make-guardian
4697 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4698 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4699 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4700 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4701 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4703 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4704 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4705 one object if at all.
4707 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4708 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4709 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4711 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4712 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4713 read again in last-in first-out order.
4715 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4716 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4718 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4720 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4721 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4722 file position is used.
4724 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4725 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4726 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4728 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4729 redefined using seek.
4731 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4732 size is not supplied.
4734 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4735 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4737 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4738 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4740 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4742 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4743 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4744 and returns the contents as a single string.
4746 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4747 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4748 lists in serial order.
4750 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4751 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4752 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4754 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4755 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4756 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4757 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4759 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4760 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4761 and #f if an error occured.
4763 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4765 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4766 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4767 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4768 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4770 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4772 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4775 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4777 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4780 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4784 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4785 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4787 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4788 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4792 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4794 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4796 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4797 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4799 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4801 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4802 might change when we get the new module system.
4804 ** The smob interface
4806 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4807 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4809 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4811 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4815 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4816 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4817 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4818 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4819 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4820 will be freed by the default free function.
4822 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4823 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4824 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4825 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4827 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4828 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4829 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4830 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4832 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4834 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4835 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4839 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4840 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4841 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4843 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4844 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4845 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4846 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4848 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4849 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4850 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4852 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4853 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4854 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4855 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4857 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4858 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4859 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4861 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4865 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4867 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4868 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4869 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4871 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4872 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4873 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4875 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4876 a string port's buffer.
4878 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4879 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4880 function pointers which together define the current random number
4881 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4882 number library functions.
4884 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4887 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4888 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4891 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4892 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4894 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4895 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4897 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4898 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4901 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4902 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4903 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4904 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4906 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4907 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4908 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4909 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4910 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4911 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4912 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4914 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4915 by libguile and the application.
4917 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4918 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4919 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4920 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4922 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4923 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4925 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4926 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4927 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4929 ** Random number library functions
4930 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4931 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4932 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4934 The default random state is stored in:
4936 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4937 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4938 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4943 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4945 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4946 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4947 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4948 isn't a random state.
4950 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4951 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4953 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4954 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4955 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4956 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4958 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4959 Return 32 random bits.
4961 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4962 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4964 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4965 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4967 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4968 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4970 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4971 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4973 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4974 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4975 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4979 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4981 * Changes to the distribution
4983 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4984 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4985 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4988 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4989 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4990 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4992 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4993 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4994 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4995 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4998 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4999 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5000 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5002 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5004 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5006 *** Function: batch-mode?
5008 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5011 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5013 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5014 case has not been implemented.
5016 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5017 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5018 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5021 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5022 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5024 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5026 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5028 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5030 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5031 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5034 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5035 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5036 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5037 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5040 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5042 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5043 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5044 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5045 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5046 find those libraries.
5048 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5049 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5052 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5054 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5055 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5056 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5057 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5059 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5060 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5061 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5065 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5067 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5068 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5069 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5072 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5073 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5074 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5075 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5077 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5078 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5081 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5082 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5083 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5084 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5085 compiler where to find the libraries.
5087 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5088 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5089 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5091 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5092 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5093 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5094 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5095 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5099 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5101 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5102 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5103 internationalization support.
5105 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5106 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5107 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5108 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5109 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5111 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5112 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5113 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5114 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5115 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5117 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5118 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5119 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5120 any GNU mirror site.
5122 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5124 ** New function: add-history STRING
5125 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5126 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5127 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5129 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5131 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5132 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5133 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5136 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5137 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5138 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5140 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5142 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5145 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5146 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5149 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5150 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5151 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5152 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5153 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5154 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5156 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5157 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5158 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5159 of the form mentioned above.
5161 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5162 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5163 returned in the special `rest' list.
5165 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5166 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5168 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5170 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5172 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5174 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5175 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5176 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5177 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5178 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5179 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5180 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5181 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5184 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5186 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5188 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5189 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5192 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5193 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5194 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5198 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5199 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5200 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5201 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5202 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5203 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5204 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5205 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5208 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5210 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5211 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5212 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5214 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5216 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5217 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5219 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5220 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5221 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5223 Why do we have this function?
5224 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5225 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5226 primitive, and display it differently, and
5227 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5228 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5231 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5232 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5235 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5236 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5237 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5238 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5240 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5241 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5244 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5245 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5247 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5249 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5250 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5251 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5252 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5253 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5254 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5255 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5258 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5260 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5261 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5263 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5264 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5265 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5266 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5267 properly continue the print chain.
5269 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5270 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5271 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5272 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5273 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5274 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5275 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5276 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5278 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5279 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5280 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5281 safest to not check for these pairs.
5283 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5284 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5285 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5286 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5288 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5290 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5291 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5293 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5295 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5297 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5298 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5299 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5301 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5302 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5303 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5305 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5306 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5307 the following functions and macros:
5309 Function: make-fluid
5311 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5312 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5313 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5314 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5315 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5317 Function: fluid? OBJ
5319 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5321 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5322 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5324 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5325 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5327 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5329 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5330 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5331 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5332 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5333 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5334 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5335 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5337 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5339 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5340 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5341 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5342 should evaluate to a fluid.
5344 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5346 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5347 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5348 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5349 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5350 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5352 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5355 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5357 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5359 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5361 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5364 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5365 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5366 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5367 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5368 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5371 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5372 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5373 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5375 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5376 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5377 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5379 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5380 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5381 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5382 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5384 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5385 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5386 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5387 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5389 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5390 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5391 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5392 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5394 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5395 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5396 their revealed counts set to zero.
5398 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5399 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5401 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5402 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5404 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5405 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5407 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5408 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5409 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5411 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5412 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5413 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5415 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5416 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5417 default environment inherited by child processes.
5419 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5420 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5421 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5423 The return value is unspecified.
5425 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5426 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5427 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5428 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5429 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5431 The return value is unspecified.
5433 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5434 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5442 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5443 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5446 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5449 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5450 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5451 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5453 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5454 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5455 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5456 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5459 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5460 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5462 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5463 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5464 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5465 the `environ' procedure.
5467 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5468 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5471 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5472 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5474 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5475 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5476 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5477 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5479 *** procedure: times
5480 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5481 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5482 return a selected component:
5485 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5489 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5492 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5496 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5497 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5501 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5502 terminated child processes.
5504 ** Removed: list-length
5505 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5506 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5508 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5510 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5512 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5514 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5515 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5516 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5517 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5519 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5520 extra complexity it introduces.
5522 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5523 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5525 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5526 variable to any non-empty value.
5528 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5529 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5531 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5533 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5534 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5536 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5538 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5539 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5541 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5543 ** vector handling routines
5545 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5546 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5547 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5548 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5549 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5551 ** pair and list routines
5553 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5556 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5558 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5561 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5563 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5565 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5566 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5567 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5568 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5569 site-specific initialization code.
5571 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5572 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5573 initialization processes.
5575 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5576 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5577 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5578 initialized properly.
5580 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5581 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5582 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5584 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5585 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5586 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5587 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5588 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5590 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5592 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5593 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5594 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5595 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5596 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5598 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5599 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5600 which look like this:
5603 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5605 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5606 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5609 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5610 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5613 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5615 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5616 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5617 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5619 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5620 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5621 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5622 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5623 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5625 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5626 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5628 int (*free) (SCM port);
5629 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5630 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5631 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5635 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5636 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5637 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5639 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5642 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5643 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5644 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5646 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5647 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5648 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5651 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5655 struct timeval *timeout);
5657 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5658 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5659 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5660 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5661 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5662 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5664 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5665 scm_catch_body_t body,
5667 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5670 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5671 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5672 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5673 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5674 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5675 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5677 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5679 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5682 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5683 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5684 spawning threads from application C code.
5686 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5687 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5688 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5689 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5690 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5691 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5693 ** Removed functions:
5695 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5696 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5698 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5700 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5701 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5703 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5705 ** mbstrings are now removed
5707 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5708 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5710 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5712 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5713 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5714 their new names and arguments:
5716 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5717 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5718 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5719 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5722 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5724 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5726 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5729 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5731 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5732 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5733 pass a #f arg to catch.
5735 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5737 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5738 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5741 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5742 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5743 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5744 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5745 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5746 reclaim its storage.
5748 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5749 worrying that some other function you call will call
5750 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5751 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5752 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5753 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5756 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5758 * Changes to the distribution
5760 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5761 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5764 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5765 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5767 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5768 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5770 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5772 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5773 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5774 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5776 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5778 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5779 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5780 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5781 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5782 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5783 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5785 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5786 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5787 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5790 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5791 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5792 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5793 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5795 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5796 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5797 libraries to your link command:
5799 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5800 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5801 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5802 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5804 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5805 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5806 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5808 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5810 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5811 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5814 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5816 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5817 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5818 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5819 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5820 searched is system dependent.
5822 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5824 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5826 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5828 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5829 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5831 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5833 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5834 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5835 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5836 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5837 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5840 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5842 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5843 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5844 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5845 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5846 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5848 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5850 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5851 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5853 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5855 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5856 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5857 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5860 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5862 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5863 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5864 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5865 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5867 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5868 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5870 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5872 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5873 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5875 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5877 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5878 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5886 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5888 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5889 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5890 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5891 a more informative way.
5893 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5894 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5895 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5896 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5897 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5898 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5900 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5901 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5904 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5905 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5906 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5909 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5910 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5911 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5912 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5913 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5914 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5916 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5917 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5918 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5919 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5922 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5923 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5924 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5925 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5926 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5927 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5929 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5930 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5931 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5932 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5933 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5935 *** regexp functions
5937 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5938 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5939 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5941 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5942 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5943 with SCSH regular expressions.
5945 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5946 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5947 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5948 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5950 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5951 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5952 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5953 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5955 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5956 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5957 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5958 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5959 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5960 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5962 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5963 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5964 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5965 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5966 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5968 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5970 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5971 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5972 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5973 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5975 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5976 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5977 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5979 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5980 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5982 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5985 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5986 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5987 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5989 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5990 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5991 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5993 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5994 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5995 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5996 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5997 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6000 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6002 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6003 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6004 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6005 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6006 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6007 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6009 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6010 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6011 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6013 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6014 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6017 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6018 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6020 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6021 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6022 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6023 may be one of the following arguments:
6025 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6027 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6029 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6030 the regexp match is written.
6032 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6033 following the regexp match is written.
6035 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6036 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6039 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6040 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6041 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6042 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6043 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6044 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6046 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6049 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6050 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6051 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6052 written out to PORT.
6054 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6055 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6056 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6057 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6058 will return after processing a single match.
6060 *** Match Structures
6062 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6063 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6064 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6065 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6066 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6067 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6070 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6071 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6072 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6073 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6074 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6076 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6077 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6078 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6080 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6081 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6082 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6083 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6084 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6086 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6087 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6089 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6090 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6092 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6093 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6095 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6096 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6098 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6099 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6100 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6101 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6103 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6104 Return the original TARGET string.
6106 *** Backslash Escapes
6108 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6109 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6110 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6111 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6112 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6113 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6115 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6116 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6117 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6118 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6119 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6120 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6121 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6122 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6124 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6125 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6126 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6127 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6128 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6129 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6130 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6132 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6133 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6134 return the resulting string.
6136 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6137 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6138 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6139 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6140 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6141 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6142 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6143 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6144 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6145 translated to the single character `*'.
6147 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6148 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6149 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6150 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6151 consecutive backslashes:
6153 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6155 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6156 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6157 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6159 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6160 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6161 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6162 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6163 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6164 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6166 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6168 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6169 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6170 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6171 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6172 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6173 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6174 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6175 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6176 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6177 cumbersome escape syntax.
6179 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6181 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6183 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6185 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6188 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6190 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6192 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6195 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6196 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6197 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6198 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6199 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6201 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6202 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6203 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6204 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6205 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6206 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6207 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6210 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6211 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6212 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6215 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6216 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6218 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6219 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6220 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6221 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6222 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6223 installed, you can say:
6225 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6228 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6230 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6231 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6232 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6233 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6234 new dynamic roots and threads.
6237 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6239 * Changes to the distribution.
6241 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6243 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6244 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6245 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6246 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6247 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6248 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6249 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6250 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6252 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6255 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6256 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6261 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6263 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6264 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6266 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6267 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6268 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6269 the (command-line) function.
6270 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6271 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6272 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6274 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6275 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6276 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6277 command line arguments
6278 -ds do -s script at this point
6279 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6280 -h, --help display this help and exit
6281 -v, --version display version information and exit
6282 \ read arguments from following script lines
6284 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6285 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6287 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6290 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6294 (main (command-line))
6296 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6298 ekko a speckled gecko
6300 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6301 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6302 following list of command-line arguments:
6304 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6306 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6307 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6308 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6309 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6310 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6312 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6314 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6316 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6317 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6320 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6321 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6322 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6323 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6325 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6326 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6327 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6328 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6330 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6334 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6338 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6340 ekko a speckled gecko
6342 Unix expands this into
6344 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6346 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6347 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6349 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6351 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6352 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6354 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6355 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6356 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6357 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6358 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6359 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6360 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6361 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6362 it only terminates the argument list.)
6363 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6364 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6365 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6366 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6367 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6368 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6369 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6370 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6372 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6374 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6375 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6376 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6377 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6378 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6380 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6381 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6382 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6384 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6386 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6387 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6388 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6389 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6392 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6393 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6394 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6396 * Changes to Scheme functions
6398 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6399 and disabled by default.
6401 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6402 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6403 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6404 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6406 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6408 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6410 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6411 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6413 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6414 (read-set! keywords #f)
6416 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6417 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6418 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6421 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6422 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6423 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6426 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6427 support for Scheme functions.
6429 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6430 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6431 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6432 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6435 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6436 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6437 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6440 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6441 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6442 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6445 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6446 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6447 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6448 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6449 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6450 display the result as a prompt.
6451 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6453 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6454 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6455 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6458 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6459 procedure of zero arguments.
6461 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6462 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6463 argument is bound in the current module.
6465 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6466 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6467 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6468 public bindings into the current module.
6470 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6471 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6473 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6474 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6476 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6477 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6479 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6480 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6482 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6483 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6485 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6486 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6487 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6488 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6489 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6491 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6492 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6493 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6494 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6496 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6499 ** Changes to I/O functions
6501 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6502 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6503 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6505 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6506 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6507 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6509 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6510 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6512 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6513 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6514 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6515 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6517 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6519 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6520 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6522 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6523 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6524 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6525 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6526 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6529 'trim omit delimiter from result
6530 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6531 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6532 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6534 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6536 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6537 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6539 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6540 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6541 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6542 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6543 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6545 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6546 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6547 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6549 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6550 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6551 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6552 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6554 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6555 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6557 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6558 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6560 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6562 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6563 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6564 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6565 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6566 a delimiting character.
6567 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6569 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6570 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6571 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6572 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6573 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6574 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6576 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6577 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6579 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6580 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6581 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6583 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6584 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6585 the array to read and write.
6587 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6588 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6591 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6593 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6596 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6597 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6598 Values for COMMAND are:
6600 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6601 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6602 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6603 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6604 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6605 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6606 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6607 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6609 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6611 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6612 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6613 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6614 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6615 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6616 corresponding return set will be the same.
6618 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6621 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6622 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6623 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6624 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6625 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6626 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6627 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6628 special file being created.
6630 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6631 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6633 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6634 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6635 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6636 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6637 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6638 and originating address.
6640 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6641 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6642 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6644 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6647 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6648 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6651 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6652 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6653 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6654 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6655 this function returns #f.
6657 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6658 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6659 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6662 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6663 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6664 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6667 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6668 a valid STATUS value.
6670 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6672 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6673 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6675 Component Accessor Setter
6676 ========================= ============ ============
6677 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6678 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6679 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6680 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6681 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6682 year tm:year set-tm:year
6683 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6684 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6685 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6686 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6687 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6689 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6690 describing the host system:
6693 ============================================== ================
6694 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6695 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6696 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6697 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6698 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6700 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6701 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6702 system's user database:
6705 ====================== =================
6706 user name passwd:name
6707 user password passwd:passwd
6710 real name passwd:gecos
6711 home directory passwd:dir
6712 shell program passwd:shell
6714 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6715 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6716 system's group database:
6719 ======================= ============
6720 group name group:name
6721 group password group:passwd
6723 group members group:mem
6725 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6726 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6730 ========================= ===============
6731 official name of host hostent:name
6732 alias list hostent:aliases
6733 host address type hostent:addrtype
6734 length of address hostent:length
6735 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6737 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6738 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6742 ========================= ===============
6743 official name of net netent:name
6744 alias list netent:aliases
6745 net number type netent:addrtype
6746 net number netent:net
6748 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6749 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6753 ========================= ===============
6754 official protocol name protoent:name
6755 alias list protoent:aliases
6756 protocol number protoent:proto
6758 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6759 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6763 ========================= ===============
6764 official service name servent:name
6765 alias list servent:aliases
6766 port number servent:port
6767 protocol to use servent:proto
6769 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6770 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6773 ======================================== ===============
6774 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6775 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6776 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6777 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6779 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6780 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6781 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6783 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6784 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6786 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6787 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6789 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6790 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6792 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6794 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6796 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6797 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6798 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6800 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6801 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6802 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6803 return the remaining characters as a string.
6805 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6806 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6807 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6809 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6811 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6813 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6816 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6819 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6820 and returns the array
6822 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6823 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6824 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6826 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6828 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6829 symbol's value from C code:
6831 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6832 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6833 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6834 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6836 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6837 without assigning them a value.
6839 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6840 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6841 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6843 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6844 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6845 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6847 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6848 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6850 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6851 doesn't actually care about that.
6853 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6854 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6855 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6857 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6858 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6859 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6860 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6861 which we have just created and initialized.
6863 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6864 should one occur. We call it like this:
6865 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6867 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6868 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6869 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6870 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6871 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6872 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6875 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6876 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6877 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6878 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6879 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6880 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6881 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6884 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6885 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6886 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6887 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6888 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6891 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6892 scm_internal_catch, except:
6894 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6895 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6896 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6897 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6900 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6901 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6902 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6904 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6905 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6906 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6907 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6910 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6911 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6912 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6914 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6915 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6916 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6917 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6918 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6920 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6921 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6922 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6924 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6925 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6926 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6928 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6929 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6931 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6932 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6933 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6936 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6937 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6938 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6939 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6940 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6941 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6942 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6945 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6946 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6948 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6949 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6950 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6951 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6952 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6955 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6956 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6958 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6959 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6962 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6963 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6965 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6968 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6969 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6970 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6971 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6972 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6973 given the following arguments:
6975 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6977 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6979 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6981 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6984 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6985 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6986 command-line arguments.
6988 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6989 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6990 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6991 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6992 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6993 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6996 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6999 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7000 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7002 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7003 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7005 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7006 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7007 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7008 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7010 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7011 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7013 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7014 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7015 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7016 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7018 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7019 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7021 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7022 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7024 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7026 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7027 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7028 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7031 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7032 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7034 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7035 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7040 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7043 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7045 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7046 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7047 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7048 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7050 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7052 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7054 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7055 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7056 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7057 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7058 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7059 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7060 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7061 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7062 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7063 for more information.
7065 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7066 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7068 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7069 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7070 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7071 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7072 following two lines at the top of the file:
7074 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7077 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7078 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7079 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7081 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7083 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7085 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7088 (display (car args))
7089 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7091 (loop (cdr args)))))
7094 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7095 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7096 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7097 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7098 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7099 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7103 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7106 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7109 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7111 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7112 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7113 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7114 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7115 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7118 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7119 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7120 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7121 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7122 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7125 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7128 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7129 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7130 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7133 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7134 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7135 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7137 to see a backtrace, and
7138 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7139 to see them by default.
7143 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7145 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7147 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7148 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7151 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7152 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7153 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7154 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7157 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7158 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7159 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7160 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7161 functions which inspired them.
7163 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7164 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7168 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7170 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7172 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7173 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7176 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7177 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7178 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7180 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7181 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7182 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7183 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7184 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7186 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7188 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7189 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7190 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7193 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7196 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7198 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7199 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7200 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7201 above should serve their purposes.
7203 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7204 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7205 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7206 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7208 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7211 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7212 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7213 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7214 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7216 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7217 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7218 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7219 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7221 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7222 for the `read' function.
7225 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7226 to that of `integer?'.
7228 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7229 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7231 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7232 it simply returns the object's property list.
7234 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7235 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7236 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7237 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7239 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7241 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7244 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7246 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7247 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7249 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7251 void (*main_func) (),
7254 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7255 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7256 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7257 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7258 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7260 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7261 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7262 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7263 know which arguments have been processed.
7265 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7266 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7267 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7268 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7269 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7271 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7272 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7273 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7274 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7275 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7276 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7277 people from making that mistake.
7279 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7280 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7282 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7284 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7288 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7291 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7292 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7293 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7294 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7297 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7298 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7299 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7300 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7303 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7304 have been added to the Guile library.
7306 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7307 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7308 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7311 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7312 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7313 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7315 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7316 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7317 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7318 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7319 argument from the list.
7322 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7325 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7326 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7328 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7329 to a Scheme port object.
7331 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7332 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7337 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7339 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7340 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7341 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7342 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7343 code as a special datatype.
7345 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7346 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7347 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7348 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7349 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7352 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7353 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7354 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7355 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7356 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7358 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7361 Copyright information:
7363 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7365 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7366 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7367 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7368 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7370 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7371 of this document, or of portions of it,
7372 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7373 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7378 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"