1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
11 Changes in 1.9.14 (since the 1.9.13 prerelease):
13 ** Command line additions
15 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
16 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
19 Changes in 1.9.13 (since the 1.9.12 prerelease):
23 The following SRFIs have been added:
25 - SRFI-27 "Sources of Random Bits"
26 - SRFI-42 "Eager Comprehensions"
27 - SRFI-45 "Primitives for Expressing Iterative Lazy Algorithms"
28 - SRFI-67 "Compare Procedures"
30 Thanks to Andreas Rottmann.
32 ** (system foreign) API changes
34 The `make-foreign-function' procedure was renamed to
37 ** (system xref) source database
39 The `(system xref)' module can now map from source locations to
40 procedures. See the `source-procedures' and `source-closures' functions.
42 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
44 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
45 ASCII-encoded strings.
47 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
49 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
52 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
54 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
55 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
56 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
59 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
60 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
61 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
62 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
64 ** Simplifications to the set of low-level hooks exported by the VM
66 See "VM Hooks" in the manual, for more information.
70 See "Traps" in the manual, for more information.
72 ** Breakpoints, tracepoints and source stepping now available at the REPL
74 See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more information.
76 The new REPL commands are: break, break-at-source, tracepoint, traps,
77 delete, disable, enable, step, step-instruction, next, next-instruction,
78 finish, and registers.
80 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
82 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
83 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
85 ** Remove obsolete print-options
87 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
90 ** Remove obsolete read-options
92 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
93 obsolete, so they have been removed.
95 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
97 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
100 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
102 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
103 on their replacements.
105 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
107 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
108 should use Guile with Emacs.
110 ** Remove vm-version, vm options
112 These procedures introduced during the 1.9 series had no effect.
114 ** Add `call-with-vm' and ability to set VM engine
116 `call-with-vm' applies a procedure to arguments in a context in which a
119 `set-vm-engine!' can be used to specify the engine for a VM, which will
120 become current at the next `call-with-vm' invocation.
122 ** Default to "regular" VM engine for noninteractive use
124 The "debug" engine is used when the user specifies --debug, or when
125 running interactively. A debug VM allows hooks to run; see "VM Hooks" in
128 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
130 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
133 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
135 ** New compilation warning: `-Wformat'
137 The `-Wformat' warning can indicate a number of common format string
138 errors. See "Compilation" in the manual, for more information.
140 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
142 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
143 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
144 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
147 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
149 ** Big manual updates
151 The GOOPS documentation got a lot of attention this cycle, as well as
152 the sections on interactive use and debugging. We don't know of any
153 sections of the manual that are out-of-date at this point.
155 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
157 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
161 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
163 * New modules (see the manual for details)
165 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
166 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
167 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
168 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
169 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
170 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
171 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
172 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
173 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
174 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
176 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
178 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
179 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
180 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
182 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
183 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
184 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
186 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
188 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
189 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
190 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
192 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
194 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
195 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
198 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
200 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
202 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
203 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
205 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
207 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
208 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
209 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
211 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
212 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
214 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
215 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
216 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
219 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
221 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
222 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
224 ** Remove old Emacs interface
226 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
227 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
228 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
231 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
233 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
234 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
235 parentheses. This option is on by default.
237 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
238 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
239 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
240 so this option is off by default.
242 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
244 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
245 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
246 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
248 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
249 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
251 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
253 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
254 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
255 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
257 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
258 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
259 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
260 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
262 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
263 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
266 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
268 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
271 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
273 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
274 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
275 include `/path/to/lib'.
277 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
279 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
282 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
284 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
285 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
286 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
287 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
290 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
292 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
293 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
294 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
296 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
298 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
299 just for the operator position.
301 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
303 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
304 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
306 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
308 ** Support for R6RS libraries
310 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
311 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
312 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
313 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
314 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
316 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
318 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
319 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
320 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
322 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
324 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
327 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
328 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
329 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
332 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
333 mentioned in that compatibility list.
335 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
337 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
338 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
339 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
340 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
342 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
343 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
344 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
345 code, and simplifying debugging.
347 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
348 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
350 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
351 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
352 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
353 both of these situations.
355 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
356 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
357 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
358 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
360 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
362 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
363 not apply to the compiler.
365 ** No more `local-eval'
367 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
368 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
369 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
370 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
373 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
374 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
377 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
379 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
380 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
381 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
383 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
384 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
385 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
388 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
389 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
390 will be created if needed.
392 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
393 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
395 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
397 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
398 in the next prerelease.
400 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
402 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
404 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
406 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
408 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
410 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
411 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
412 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
414 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
415 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
416 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
417 procedures' docstrings for more information.
419 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
420 combining arity and formals. For example:
422 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
423 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
425 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
428 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
430 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
431 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
432 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
433 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
435 ** New language: ECMAScript
437 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
438 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
439 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
440 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
442 ** New language: Brainfuck
444 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
445 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
446 languages. See the manual for details, or
447 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
448 Brainfuck language itself.
450 ** New language: Elisp
452 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
453 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
454 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
456 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
458 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
459 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
460 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
461 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
464 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
466 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
467 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
468 properties. For example:
474 (procedure-properties foo)
475 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
477 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
480 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
482 (procedure-properties bar)
483 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
485 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
488 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
491 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
493 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
494 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
497 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
498 (define (helper x) ...)
500 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
502 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
505 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
506 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
508 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
510 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
511 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
512 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
514 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
516 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
517 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
518 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
519 for more information.
521 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
523 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
524 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
526 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
528 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
529 in the manual, for more information.
531 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
534 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
535 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
537 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
539 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
541 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
543 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
544 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
545 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
546 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
547 in response to user feedback.
549 ** Support for `letrec*'
551 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
552 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
553 manual, for more details.
555 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
557 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
558 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
563 (define baz (+ bar 20))
566 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
567 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
568 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
571 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
572 in earlier Guile dialects.
574 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
576 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
577 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
578 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
579 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
581 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
582 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
583 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
584 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
587 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
589 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
590 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
593 (define (helper x) ...)
594 (define-macro (foo bar)
597 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
600 (define (helper x) ...)
601 (define-macro (foo bar)
602 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
604 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
608 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
610 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
612 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
619 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
620 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
623 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
625 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
626 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
629 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
631 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
632 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
633 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
635 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
637 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
641 (define-macro (ref x) x)
644 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
645 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
646 macros before code that uses them.
648 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
651 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
653 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
654 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
655 (double-literal 2) => 4
657 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
658 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
659 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
661 (eval-when (load compile eval)
662 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
663 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
664 (double-literal 2) => 4
666 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
668 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
670 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
671 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
672 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
673 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
676 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
678 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
679 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
681 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
683 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
684 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
685 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
687 ** Incompatible change to #'
689 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
690 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
691 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
692 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
694 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
696 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
699 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
701 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
702 in the manual, for more information.
704 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
705 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
707 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
708 works (with compiled procedures)
710 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
711 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
712 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
713 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
715 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
716 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
717 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
718 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
719 number of stack frames.
721 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
722 active in the current continuation
724 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
725 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
726 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
727 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
729 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
731 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
733 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
734 through to the expanded code
736 This should result in better backtraces.
738 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
740 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
742 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
744 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
745 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
748 ** New procedure, `define!'
750 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
751 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
752 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
753 less verbose than `module-define!'.
755 ** All modules have names now
757 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
758 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
759 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
760 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
762 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
764 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
765 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
766 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
767 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
769 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
770 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
771 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
772 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
773 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
774 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
776 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
777 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
778 days of Guile's modules.
780 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
781 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
782 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
783 record accessors appropriately.
785 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
786 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
787 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
789 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
790 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
791 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
793 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
794 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
797 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
798 namespaces instead of values.
800 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
802 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
803 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
804 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
805 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
807 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
809 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
811 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
813 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
814 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
816 ** Modules load within a known environment
818 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
819 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
820 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
823 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
825 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
826 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
827 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
829 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
830 values to the expected number
832 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
833 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
834 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
836 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
837 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
838 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
839 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
841 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
842 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
843 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
845 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
848 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
850 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
852 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
853 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
854 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
855 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
856 the interpreter would proceed.
858 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
859 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
860 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
861 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
863 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
865 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
866 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
867 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
868 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
869 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
870 you to contact the Guile developers.
872 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
874 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
875 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
876 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
878 ** psyntax is now the default expander
880 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
881 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
884 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
885 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
886 code in question was memoized.
888 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
889 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
890 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
891 `x432' instead of `x'.
893 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
894 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
895 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
896 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
898 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
900 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
901 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
902 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
905 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
906 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
907 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
908 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
910 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
912 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
913 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
914 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
915 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
919 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
922 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
923 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
924 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
926 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
927 by nonhygienic macros.
929 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
930 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
933 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
934 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
935 (define-macro (ref x)
942 (define-syntax bind-x
944 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
945 (define-macro (ref x)
949 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
950 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
951 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
952 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
953 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
954 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
956 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
958 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
959 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
961 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
962 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
965 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
967 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
968 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
969 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
970 transformer procedures.
972 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
974 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
975 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
976 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
978 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
980 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
981 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
982 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
983 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
985 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
987 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
988 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
989 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
992 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
994 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
995 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
996 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
997 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
999 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1001 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1002 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1003 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1006 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1007 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1008 documentation for more details.
1010 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1012 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1013 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1015 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1017 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1018 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1019 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1020 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1021 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1022 addressed by element and not by byte.
1024 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1025 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1026 endianness, as one would expect.
1028 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1029 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1030 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1031 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1034 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1035 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1037 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1038 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1040 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1042 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1044 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1045 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1046 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1048 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1049 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1051 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1053 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1055 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1056 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1058 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1060 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1061 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1064 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1066 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1067 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1069 ** Unicode characters
1071 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1072 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1073 probably be introduced at some point.
1077 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1078 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1079 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1081 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1082 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1083 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1084 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1088 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1090 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1092 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1093 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1094 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1095 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1096 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1099 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1100 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1101 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1103 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1105 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1106 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1107 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1110 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1111 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1112 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1114 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1116 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1118 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1119 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1120 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1121 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1123 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1125 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1126 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1127 Unicode code points.
1129 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1131 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1132 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1133 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1136 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1138 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1139 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1140 and was unmaintained.
1142 ** Compile-time warnings
1144 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1145 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1146 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1147 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1150 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1151 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1152 `#:warnings' as above.
1154 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1155 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables.
1157 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1159 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1162 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1164 This slightly improves program startup times.
1166 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1168 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1170 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1172 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1173 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1174 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1175 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1177 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1179 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1180 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1181 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1182 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1184 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1185 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1186 implement method combinations.
1188 ** Applicable struct support
1190 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1191 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1192 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1193 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1194 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1195 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1196 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1197 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1201 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1202 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1203 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1204 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1205 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1207 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1209 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1210 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1211 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1212 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1214 ** eqv? not a generic
1216 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1217 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1218 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1219 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1221 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1223 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1224 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1225 functions are deprecated.
1227 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1229 See "File System" in the manual.
1231 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1233 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1234 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1235 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1237 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1239 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1240 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1241 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1243 ** Fast bit operations.
1245 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1246 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1247 it's for number crunching too.
1249 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1251 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1252 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1253 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1254 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1256 ** R6RS block comment support
1258 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1259 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1261 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1263 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1264 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1266 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1267 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1268 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1270 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1271 ;; separate compilation phase.
1272 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1274 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1276 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1278 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1280 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1281 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1282 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1283 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1284 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1287 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1288 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1289 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1290 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1291 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1293 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1295 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1297 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1299 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1301 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1303 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1305 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1306 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1307 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1309 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1311 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1312 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1314 ** New readline history functions
1316 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1317 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1318 History library functions.
1320 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1321 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1323 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1326 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1328 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1329 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1330 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1331 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1332 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1333 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1334 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1336 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1337 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1339 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1340 `before-signal-stack'.
1342 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1343 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1344 a deprecation warning.
1346 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1348 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1349 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1350 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1351 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1354 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1356 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1357 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1358 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1359 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1361 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1362 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1364 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1366 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1367 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1368 left in the default environment.
1370 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1372 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1373 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1374 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1375 information for the error.
1377 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1379 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1380 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1381 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1383 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1385 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1386 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1387 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1388 `with-throw-handler'.
1390 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1392 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1393 and is no longer used.
1395 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1397 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1398 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1399 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
1401 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1403 * Changes to the C interface
1405 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1407 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1408 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1409 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1411 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1412 code easier and less error-prone.
1414 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1416 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1417 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1418 available to C. Have fun!
1420 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1422 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1424 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1427 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1428 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1430 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1432 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1433 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1434 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1437 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1439 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1440 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1441 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1442 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1445 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1447 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1448 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1449 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1450 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1451 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1452 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1454 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1455 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1456 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1457 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1458 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1459 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1461 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1462 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1463 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1464 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1465 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1467 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1468 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1469 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1470 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1471 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1472 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1474 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1475 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1476 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1477 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1480 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1481 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1484 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1486 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1487 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1488 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1489 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1490 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1492 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1494 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1495 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1497 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1499 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1500 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1502 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1504 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1505 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1507 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1509 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1510 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1511 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1512 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1513 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1516 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1518 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1519 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1520 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1521 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1524 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1525 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1526 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1527 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1529 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1531 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1533 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1535 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1538 ** Inline vector allocation
1540 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1541 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1542 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1543 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1546 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1548 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1549 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1553 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1554 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1555 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1556 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1557 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1559 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1561 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1562 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1563 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1564 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1565 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1566 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1570 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1571 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1572 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1573 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1575 ** Deprecate trampolines
1577 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1578 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1579 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1580 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1581 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1583 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1585 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1587 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1589 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1590 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1591 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1592 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1594 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1596 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1597 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1598 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1599 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1600 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1601 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1602 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1604 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1606 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1607 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1610 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1611 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1613 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1615 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1616 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1618 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1620 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1621 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1622 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1623 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1625 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1627 * Changes to the distribution
1629 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1631 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1632 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1637 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1638 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1640 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1642 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1643 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1645 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1647 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1648 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1649 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1652 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1654 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1655 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1657 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1659 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1660 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1662 ** Parallel installability fixes
1664 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1665 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1666 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1668 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1669 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1670 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1673 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1675 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1676 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1677 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1678 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1679 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1681 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1683 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1684 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1685 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1686 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1687 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1688 searched before the global site directory.
1690 ** New dependency: libgc
1692 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1694 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1696 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1697 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1699 ** New dependency: libffi
1701 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1705 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1709 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1710 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1711 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1714 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1716 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1718 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1722 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1723 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1724 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1725 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1726 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1727 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1728 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1729 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1730 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1731 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1732 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1734 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1736 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1737 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1738 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1741 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1744 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1746 * New features (see the manual for details)
1748 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1750 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1752 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1753 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1754 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1756 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1758 * Changes to the distribution
1760 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1762 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1763 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1765 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1767 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1768 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1773 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1774 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1775 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1776 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1777 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1778 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1779 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1780 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1781 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1782 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1783 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1784 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1785 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1786 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1788 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1789 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1790 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1791 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1792 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1795 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1797 * Infrastructure changes
1799 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1801 The new repository can be accessed using
1802 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1803 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1805 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1807 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1809 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1813 * New features (see the manual for details)
1815 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1816 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1817 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1819 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1820 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1821 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1822 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1824 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1826 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1827 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1828 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1832 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1833 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1835 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1836 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1838 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1839 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1841 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1842 lead to a stack overflow.
1844 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1845 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1846 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1847 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1848 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1849 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1850 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1851 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1852 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1853 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1854 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1855 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1856 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1857 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1858 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1859 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1862 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1866 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1867 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1868 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1869 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1870 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1871 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1872 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1873 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1874 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1875 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1876 system and library calls.
1877 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1878 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1879 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1880 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1881 uniform vectors on AIX.
1882 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1883 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1884 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1885 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1886 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1888 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1892 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1894 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1896 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1897 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1899 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1901 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1903 * Changes to the distribution
1905 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1907 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1908 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1909 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1911 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1913 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1916 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1918 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1925 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1926 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1927 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1928 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1929 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1930 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1931 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1933 * Implementation improvements
1935 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1936 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1939 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1941 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1943 ** set-program-arguments
1946 * Incompatible changes
1948 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1950 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1951 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1952 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1953 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1958 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1959 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1960 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1961 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1962 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1963 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1965 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1966 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1967 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1968 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1969 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1970 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1971 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1972 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1973 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1974 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1975 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1976 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1977 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1978 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1979 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1980 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1983 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1985 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1987 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1989 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1990 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1991 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1992 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1993 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1994 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2002 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2004 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2006 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2008 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2010 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2012 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2014 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2015 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2016 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2018 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2020 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2022 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2023 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2025 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2027 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2028 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2030 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2032 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2034 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2036 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2038 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2040 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2042 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2044 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2046 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2048 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2049 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2050 file was on a different device.
2053 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2055 * Changes to the distribution
2057 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2059 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2061 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2063 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2065 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2067 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2070 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2072 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2073 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2074 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2075 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2076 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2077 items like the versioned share directory name
2078 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2080 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2081 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2082 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2083 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2084 with each micro release during a stable series.
2086 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2088 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2089 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2090 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2091 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2092 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2095 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2096 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2097 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2098 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2101 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2102 in which case "null" threads are used.
2104 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2105 "Blocking", and others.
2107 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2109 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2111 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2112 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2113 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2114 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2115 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2117 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2118 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2120 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2122 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2123 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2125 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2128 This SRFI is always available.
2130 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2132 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2133 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2134 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2135 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2138 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2140 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2141 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2142 parameters without currying.
2144 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2146 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2147 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2149 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2150 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2153 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2154 with a renaming import, for example.
2156 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2158 The official version is good enough now.
2160 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2162 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2163 provided. Use 'make html'.
2165 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2167 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2168 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2169 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2170 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2172 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2174 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2177 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2179 ** New command line option `-L'.
2181 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2183 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2185 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2186 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2188 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2190 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2191 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2193 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2195 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2196 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2199 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2202 (define-module (demo)
2206 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2209 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2211 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2213 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2214 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2215 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2217 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2219 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2220 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2222 ** New function hashx-remove!
2224 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2226 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2227 barriers and dynamic states.
2229 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2230 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2231 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2234 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2235 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2236 Barriers" in the manual.
2238 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2239 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2241 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2243 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2244 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2245 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2246 variable %load-path.
2248 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2250 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2251 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2253 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2254 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2255 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2257 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2258 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2260 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2261 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2262 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2264 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2265 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2266 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2269 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2270 substrings and read-only strings.
2272 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2273 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2276 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2278 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2287 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2288 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2289 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2291 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2292 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2293 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2294 on an ANSI terminal:
2296 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2297 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2300 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2302 See the manual for details.
2304 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2306 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2309 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2311 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2312 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2313 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2314 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2316 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2317 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2318 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2321 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2323 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2324 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2335 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2339 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2344 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2348 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2352 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2355 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2356 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2357 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2358 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2360 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2361 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2364 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2367 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2371 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2373 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2374 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2375 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2378 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2381 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2383 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2386 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2387 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2390 (define-module (foo)
2395 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2396 has been detected is to
2398 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2399 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2400 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2403 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2406 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2408 to your .guile init file.
2410 ** New define-module option: :replace
2412 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2415 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2416 for the core binding `format'.
2418 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2420 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2421 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2423 (define-module (foo)
2424 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2426 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2429 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2431 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2432 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2433 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2435 ** New function: effective-version
2437 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2438 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2439 to the distribution" above.
2441 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2443 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2444 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2446 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2448 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2449 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2451 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2453 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2454 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2457 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2459 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2461 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2463 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2464 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2465 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2468 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2469 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2470 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2471 'system-async-mark'.
2473 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2474 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2476 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2477 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2478 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2481 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2483 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2484 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2487 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2488 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2490 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2491 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2492 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2493 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2494 level for the current thread.
2496 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2498 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2500 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2501 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2504 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2506 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2508 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2511 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2513 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2516 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2517 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2518 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2520 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2521 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2522 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2523 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2534 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2536 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2539 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2541 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2542 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2543 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2554 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2556 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2557 them is also done exactly, of course:
2562 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2563 for exact arguments.
2565 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2566 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2568 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2570 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2571 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2572 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2574 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2575 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2577 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2579 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2582 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2584 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2585 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2587 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2590 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2591 result when both its arguments are exact.
2593 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2595 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2596 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2597 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2599 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2601 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2602 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2603 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2605 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2608 ** pretty-print has more options.
2610 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2611 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2612 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2614 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2616 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2617 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2618 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2620 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2622 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2623 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2625 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2627 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2628 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2631 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2633 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2634 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2635 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2636 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2637 without the soft port blocking.
2639 ** Deprecated: undefine
2641 There is no replacement for undefine.
2643 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2644 have been discouraged.
2646 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2647 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2648 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2651 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2653 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2655 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2656 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2657 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2658 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2661 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2662 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2663 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2665 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2667 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2668 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2669 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2670 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2671 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2672 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2674 * Changes to the C interface
2676 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2677 take a 'delete' function argument.
2679 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2680 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2682 This is an incompatible change.
2684 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2686 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2687 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2688 --disable-deprecated.
2690 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2692 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2693 Scheme values has been added.
2695 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2696 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2699 - int scm_is_* (...)
2701 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2702 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2704 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2706 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2707 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2710 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2712 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2713 scm_from_int for ints.
2715 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2716 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2717 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2719 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2721 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2722 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2723 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2726 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2728 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2730 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2732 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2733 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2734 following alternatives.
2736 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2737 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2738 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2739 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2741 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2742 do the validating for you.
2744 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2745 have been discouraged.
2747 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2748 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2751 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2753 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2754 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2757 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2759 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2762 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2765 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2767 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2768 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2770 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2771 scm_truncate_number should have.
2773 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2774 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2776 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2779 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2780 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2781 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2783 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2784 easier to use from C.
2786 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2787 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2789 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2790 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2791 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2794 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2795 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2796 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2797 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2800 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2801 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2802 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2803 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2804 and is thus quite efficient.
2806 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2808 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2809 about the character encoding.
2811 Replace according to the following table:
2813 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2814 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2815 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2816 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2817 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2818 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2819 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2820 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2821 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2823 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2824 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2826 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2828 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2829 now also available to C code.
2831 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2833 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2834 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2835 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2837 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2840 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2842 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2843 unceremoniously removed.
2845 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2846 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2847 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2849 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2850 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2851 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2852 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2853 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2854 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2857 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2859 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2860 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2861 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2862 manual for more details.
2864 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2865 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2867 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2868 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2869 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2871 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2873 Migrate according to the following table:
2875 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2876 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2877 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2878 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2879 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2880 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2881 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2883 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2884 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2885 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2886 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2887 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2888 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2889 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2891 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2893 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2894 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2896 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2897 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2898 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2899 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2901 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2903 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2904 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2905 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2907 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2908 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2910 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2911 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2912 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2913 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2915 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2917 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2918 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2919 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2920 prevent a potential memory leak:
2927 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2929 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2930 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2932 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2933 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2940 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2941 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2945 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2947 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2949 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2950 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2951 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2953 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2954 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2956 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2958 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2960 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2961 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2962 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2964 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2965 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2967 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2968 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2969 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2970 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2973 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2975 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2976 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2977 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2979 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2981 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2982 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2984 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2986 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2987 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2989 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2991 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2992 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2993 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2995 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2997 You should not have used them.
2999 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3001 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3002 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3004 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3006 This macro is not intended for public use.
3008 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3010 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3012 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3014 Use scm_is_real instead.
3016 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3018 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3020 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3022 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3023 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3025 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3026 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3028 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3029 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3031 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3033 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3036 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3038 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3039 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3040 to the distribution" above.
3042 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3044 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3045 arguments are now passed directly:
3047 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3049 This is an incompatible change.
3051 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3053 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3054 function in the init section.
3056 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3058 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3060 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3061 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3062 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3063 stays roughly constant.
3065 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3066 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3067 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3068 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3069 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3072 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3073 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3074 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3075 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3077 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3078 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3079 objects for every type.
3082 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3084 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3086 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3088 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3089 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3090 initializes a new cell (see below).
3092 ** New functions for memory management
3094 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3095 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3096 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3097 cause aborts in long running programs.
3099 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3100 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3102 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3103 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3104 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3105 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3106 details and for upgrading instructions.
3108 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3109 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3110 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3112 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3114 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3115 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3116 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3117 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3118 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3120 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3121 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3122 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3124 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3125 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3127 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3129 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3130 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3131 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3132 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3133 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3135 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3137 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3140 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3142 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3144 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3146 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3147 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3149 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3151 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3152 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3154 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3155 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3157 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3159 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3161 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3162 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3163 blocking it is not well defined.
3165 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3167 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3168 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3169 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3170 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3171 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3172 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3173 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3174 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3175 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3176 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3177 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3178 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3179 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3180 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3181 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3182 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3183 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3184 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3185 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3186 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3187 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3188 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3189 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3190 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3191 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3192 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3193 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3194 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3195 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3196 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3197 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3199 * Changes to bundled modules
3203 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3204 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3205 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3206 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3207 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3210 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3212 * Changes to the distribution
3214 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3216 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3218 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3219 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3220 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3221 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3222 indicate major changes in Guile.
3224 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3225 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3226 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3227 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3229 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3230 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3231 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3232 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3233 micro version number.
3235 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3237 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3239 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3240 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3242 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3244 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3245 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3246 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3248 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3250 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3251 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3252 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3255 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3257 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3260 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3262 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3263 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3265 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3267 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3268 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3271 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3273 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3276 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3279 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3281 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3283 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3284 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3285 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3287 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3289 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3291 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3294 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3296 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3298 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3300 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3301 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3302 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3304 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3306 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3308 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3309 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3318 See README there for more info.
3320 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3321 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3324 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3326 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3328 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3330 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3331 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3332 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3334 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3336 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3337 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3338 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3340 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3341 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3343 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3346 (oop goops describe)
3348 (oop goops active-slot)
3349 (oop goops composite-slot)
3351 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3352 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3353 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3355 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3357 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3358 in the default environment:
3360 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3361 %read-line write-line
3363 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3364 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3366 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3368 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3371 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3372 can be used for similar functionality.
3374 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3376 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3377 it defines two procedures:
3379 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3381 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3382 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3383 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3386 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3388 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3389 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3390 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3391 write large strings.
3393 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3395 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3396 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3398 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3400 for complete documentation.
3402 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3404 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3405 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3406 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3407 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3409 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3410 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3414 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3415 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3416 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3419 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3422 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3423 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3425 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3426 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3429 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3432 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3434 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3436 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3438 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3440 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3441 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3442 Scheme programs easier.
3444 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3445 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3446 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3447 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3448 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3451 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3452 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3454 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3457 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3459 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3460 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3461 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3464 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3466 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3468 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3469 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3470 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3471 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3472 was also ASCII, for example.
3474 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3476 tag - no replacement.
3477 fseek - replaced by seek.
3478 list* - replaced by cons*.
3480 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3484 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3485 (define m (make-safe-module))
3486 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3487 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3488 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3490 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3492 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3493 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3494 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3496 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3498 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3499 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3500 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3501 from the issues related to the module system.
3503 *** New function: load-extension
3505 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3507 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3509 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3510 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3511 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3513 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3515 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3516 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3517 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3518 support dynamic linking).
3520 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3522 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3523 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3524 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3525 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3528 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3529 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3530 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3531 library and initialize it explicitly.
3533 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3534 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3536 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3538 (define-module (foo bar))
3540 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3542 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3544 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3545 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3547 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3548 (null-environment 5)
3549 (interaction-environment)
3555 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3557 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3558 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3559 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3560 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3562 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3563 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3564 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3565 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3566 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3567 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3568 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3569 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3570 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3571 one eval to the next.
3573 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3574 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3575 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3576 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3577 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3579 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3580 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3581 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3582 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3583 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3584 used in a lexical environment.
3586 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3587 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3588 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3589 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3590 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3591 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3593 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3595 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3596 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3597 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3598 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3599 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3601 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3602 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3603 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3605 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3606 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3608 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3609 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3610 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3612 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3613 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3615 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3616 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3617 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3618 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3621 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3622 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3623 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3624 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3626 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3627 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3628 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3630 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3631 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3632 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3633 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3634 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3636 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3638 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3639 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3640 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3642 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3643 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3644 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3646 See manual for more info.
3648 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3650 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3651 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3652 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3654 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3656 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3657 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3658 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3660 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3661 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3662 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3663 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3665 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3667 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3668 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3670 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3671 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3672 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3673 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3674 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3677 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3678 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3679 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3680 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3681 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3682 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3684 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3685 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3686 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3687 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3688 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3690 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3691 objects are usually permanent.
3693 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3694 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3696 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3698 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3699 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3702 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3706 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3711 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3713 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3714 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3715 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3716 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3718 ** New function `make-object-property'
3720 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3721 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3725 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3726 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3730 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3731 source properties eventually.
3733 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3735 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3736 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3737 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3739 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3740 will be removed in the next release.
3742 ** New define-module option: pure
3744 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3749 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3752 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3754 Export names NAME1 ...
3756 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3757 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3761 (define-module (foo)
3763 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3766 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3771 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3773 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3775 ** New function: port? X
3777 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3778 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3780 ** New function: file-port?
3782 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3784 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3786 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3787 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3788 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3789 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3790 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3792 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3794 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3795 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3796 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3797 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3798 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3801 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3803 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3804 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3805 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3806 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3809 ** New function: crypt password salt
3811 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3814 ** New function: chroot path
3816 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3818 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3820 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3823 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3825 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3827 ** New function: getpass prompt
3829 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3832 ** New function: flock file operation
3834 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3836 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3838 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3841 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3843 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3844 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3845 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3846 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3847 of the temporary file.
3849 ** New function: open-input-string string
3851 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3852 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3853 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3855 ** New function: open-output-string
3857 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3858 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3860 ** New function: get-output-string
3862 Return the contents of an output string port.
3864 ** New function: identity
3866 Return the argument.
3868 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3869 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3871 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3873 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3874 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3875 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3878 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3879 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3881 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3883 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3884 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3885 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3888 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3889 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3890 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3894 Use `identity' instead.
3900 ** Deprecated: return-it
3904 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3906 Use `string-length' instead.
3908 ** Deprecated: flags
3910 Use `logior' instead.
3912 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3914 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3915 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3916 port-for-each is more flexible.
3918 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3919 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3920 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3922 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3924 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3926 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3928 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3930 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3932 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3933 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3935 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3936 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3938 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3939 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3941 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3943 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3944 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3946 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3947 Use module system operations for all variables.
3949 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3951 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3954 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3956 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3957 The following bugs have been fixed:
3959 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3960 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3963 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3964 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3965 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3967 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3968 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3970 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3971 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3974 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3975 The expansion used to be like so:
3977 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3979 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3981 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3983 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3984 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3986 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3988 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3989 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3990 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3994 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3995 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3997 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4002 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4003 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4005 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4006 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4007 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4009 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4012 * Changes to the C interface
4014 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4016 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4017 with "_t". What a concept.
4019 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4021 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4023 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4027 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4028 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4030 *** C Functions removed
4032 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4033 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4034 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4035 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4036 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4037 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4038 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4040 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4042 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4044 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4046 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4048 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4049 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4051 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4053 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4056 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4058 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4060 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4062 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4063 Evaluation" in the manual.
4065 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4067 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4068 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4070 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4072 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4073 Constructors" in the manual.
4075 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4077 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4078 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4080 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4082 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4084 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4085 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4086 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4088 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4090 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4092 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4093 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4094 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4097 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4099 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4101 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4102 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4104 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4106 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4107 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4108 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4109 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4111 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4112 scm_primitive_property_ref
4113 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4114 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4116 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4117 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4119 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4121 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4122 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4123 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4124 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4126 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4128 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4129 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4130 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4131 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4132 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4133 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4134 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4136 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4137 scm_remember_upto_here
4139 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4141 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4143 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4144 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4146 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4148 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4150 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4152 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4154 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4156 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4157 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4158 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4159 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4160 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4161 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4163 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4165 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4167 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4168 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4169 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4171 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4173 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4174 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4175 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4177 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4179 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4180 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4183 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4186 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4187 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4190 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4192 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4194 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4196 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4198 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4200 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4202 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4203 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4204 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4205 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4206 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4207 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4208 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4209 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4210 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4211 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4212 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4213 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4214 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4215 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4216 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4218 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4219 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4220 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4221 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4222 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4223 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4224 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4225 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4226 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4227 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4228 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4229 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4230 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4231 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4232 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4233 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4234 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4235 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4236 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4237 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4238 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4239 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4240 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4241 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4242 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4243 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4244 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4245 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4246 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4248 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4250 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4252 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4253 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4255 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4257 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4259 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4261 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4263 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4265 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4267 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4269 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4271 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4274 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4275 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4277 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4279 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4281 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4283 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4285 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4287 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4289 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4291 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4294 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4296 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4298 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4300 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4301 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4303 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4304 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4306 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4308 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4309 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4310 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4312 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4314 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4316 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4317 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4319 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4320 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4321 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4322 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4324 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4325 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4326 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4328 Use the new ones from above instead.
4330 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4332 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4333 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4334 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4336 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4337 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4339 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4340 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4343 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4344 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4346 Use the new functions instead.
4348 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4351 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4353 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4355 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4358 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4360 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4363 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4365 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4368 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4369 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4370 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4372 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4374 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4375 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4377 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4378 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4379 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4380 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4383 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4385 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4386 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4387 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4388 inexact for an exact.
4390 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4391 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4392 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4395 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4396 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4397 accept an inexact argument.
4399 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4400 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4402 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4405 ** New number validation macros:
4406 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4410 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4412 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4413 scm_unprotect_object.
4415 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4417 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4419 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4422 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4424 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4428 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4430 * Changes to the distribution
4432 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4434 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4435 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4436 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4437 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4438 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4439 obtain these programs.
4440 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4441 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4443 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4444 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4445 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4446 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4447 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4449 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4450 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4451 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4452 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4456 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4459 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4460 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4461 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4462 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4464 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4466 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4468 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4469 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4471 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4472 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4474 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4475 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4477 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4478 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4479 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4480 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4482 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4484 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4488 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4489 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4491 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4493 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4494 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4496 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4497 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4498 number of objects of that kind.
4500 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4502 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4503 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4504 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4505 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4506 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4508 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4510 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4512 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4514 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4517 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4519 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4521 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4523 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4525 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4527 ** New command line option --debug
4529 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4531 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4533 ** New help facility
4535 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4536 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4537 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4538 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4539 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4540 (help) gives this text
4542 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4543 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4545 Examples: (help help)
4547 (help "output-string")
4549 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4551 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4553 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4554 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4557 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4558 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4559 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4562 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4563 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4564 use absolute filenames when possible.
4566 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4567 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4568 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4571 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4573 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4574 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4575 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4576 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4578 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4580 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4582 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4583 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4584 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4586 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4587 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4588 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4590 (read-enable 'positions)
4591 (debug-enable 'debug)
4593 ** Backtraces in scripts
4595 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4599 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4601 at the top of the script.
4603 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4604 The second enables backtraces.)
4606 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4608 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4609 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4610 substantially faster than before.
4612 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4613 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4615 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4616 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4618 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4620 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4621 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4622 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4624 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4625 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4626 when this hook is run in the future.
4628 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4629 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4631 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4633 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4634 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4637 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4638 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4639 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4641 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4642 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4644 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4645 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4647 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4648 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4649 in order not to need further allocation.)
4651 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4654 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4655 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4656 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4657 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4659 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4661 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4664 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4666 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4669 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4670 GC in percent of total heap size
4673 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4674 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4676 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4678 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4679 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4681 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4683 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4684 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4686 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4688 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4689 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4693 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4694 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4696 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4698 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4700 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4702 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4704 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4706 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4707 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4709 (simple-format port message . args)
4710 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4711 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4712 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4713 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4714 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4715 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4716 Does not add a trailing newline."
4718 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4720 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4721 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4723 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4724 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4726 ** Deprecated: list*
4728 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4730 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4732 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4733 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4735 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4736 is returned as result.
4738 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4740 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4742 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4744 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4745 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4748 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4750 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4752 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4753 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4755 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4757 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4759 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4761 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4763 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4765 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4767 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4769 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4770 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4771 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4773 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4776 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4778 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4779 the readability of argument checking.
4781 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4783 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4785 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4787 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4788 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4789 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4790 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4791 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4792 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4793 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4795 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4797 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4799 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4800 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4802 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4804 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4805 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4808 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4810 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4811 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4812 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4814 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4815 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4816 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4818 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4819 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4820 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4821 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4822 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4823 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4824 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4826 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4827 scm_end_input (object);
4828 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4829 ptob->flush (object);
4831 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4832 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4835 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4837 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4839 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4840 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4841 removed in a future version.
4843 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4845 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4846 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4847 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4848 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4850 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4851 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4853 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4856 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4858 in your configure.in.
4860 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4865 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4871 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4873 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4877 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4878 (define make-message string-append)
4880 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4882 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4886 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4891 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4895 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4897 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4898 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4900 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4902 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4903 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4904 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4905 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4906 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4907 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4909 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4910 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4911 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4913 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4914 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4915 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4918 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4919 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4920 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4921 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4922 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4924 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4925 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4926 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4927 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4928 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4929 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4930 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4932 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4934 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4935 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4936 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4938 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4939 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4940 KEY in the calling thread.
4942 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4943 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4944 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4945 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4946 associated with the key.
4948 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4950 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4951 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4953 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4955 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4956 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4957 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4959 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4961 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4962 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4964 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4966 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4968 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4969 returned is undefined.
4971 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4972 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4973 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4975 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4976 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4977 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4979 ** New C level GC hooks
4981 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4983 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4986 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4987 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4988 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4990 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4991 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4992 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4994 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4995 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4998 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5000 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5001 allocation parameters
5003 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5004 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5005 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5009 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5010 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5011 scm_default_max_segment_size
5013 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5015 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5016 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5018 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5020 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5021 object and count on the object being protected until
5022 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5024 The functions also have better time complexity.
5026 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5027 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5028 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5029 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5030 are no longer needed.
5032 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5034 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5035 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5036 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5037 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5039 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5041 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5043 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5045 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5046 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5047 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5048 until this issue has been settled.
5050 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5052 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5054 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5057 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5059 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5061 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5062 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5063 descriptors were checked.
5065 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5066 atomically written to a pipe.
5068 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5069 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5070 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5071 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5072 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5073 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5074 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5077 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5078 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5079 is changed without calling tzset.
5081 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5083 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5084 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5085 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5087 (define write-network-long
5088 (lambda (value port)
5089 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5090 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5091 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5093 (define read-network-long
5095 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5096 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5097 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5099 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5100 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5102 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5103 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5104 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5105 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5107 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5108 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5109 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5110 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5114 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5116 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5120 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5121 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5122 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5128 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5129 for a description of available commands.
5131 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5132 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5133 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5135 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5137 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5138 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5140 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5142 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5144 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5145 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5146 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5147 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5148 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5149 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5152 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5154 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5155 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5156 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5157 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5159 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5160 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5162 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5164 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5166 ** Readline support has changed again.
5168 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5169 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5170 to activate readline is now
5172 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5175 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5177 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5178 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5179 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5182 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5183 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5184 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5187 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5188 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5189 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5190 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5191 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5192 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5194 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5195 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5197 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5199 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5200 object it receives is the same string passed to
5201 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5202 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5203 string, not the suffix.
5205 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5206 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5207 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5209 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5211 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5212 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5213 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5214 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5217 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5219 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5221 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5222 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5223 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5224 appear from left to right.
5226 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5229 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5231 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5232 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5234 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5238 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5240 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5242 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5244 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5245 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5246 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5248 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5250 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5252 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5254 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5257 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5259 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5260 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5261 mentioning it here anyway.
5263 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5265 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5266 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5267 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5268 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5271 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5273 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5275 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5277 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5278 otherwise return #f.
5280 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5282 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5283 returned by `opendir'.
5285 ** New function: using-readline?
5287 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5289 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5291 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5292 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5294 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5296 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5298 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5299 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5300 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5302 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5304 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5305 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5307 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5309 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5310 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5311 documentation slots are not yet used.
5313 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5315 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5316 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5317 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5322 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5323 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5324 (string-append x y))
5326 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5327 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5329 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5330 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5331 be made in a clean way.]
5333 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5335 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5337 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5339 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5340 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5342 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5344 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5346 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5348 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5350 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5351 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5352 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5353 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5356 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5358 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5360 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5362 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5364 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5365 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5367 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5369 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5371 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5373 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5375 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5376 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5377 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5378 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5379 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5380 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5382 This should not make any difference for most users.
5384 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5386 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5387 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5389 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5391 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5392 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5393 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5394 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5395 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5397 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5399 It is now replaced by:
5401 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5403 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5404 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5406 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5408 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5409 This might change when we get the new module system.
5411 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5415 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5417 * Changes to mailing lists
5419 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5421 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5424 * Changes to the distribution
5426 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5428 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5429 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5430 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5431 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5432 you explicitly specify it.
5434 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5435 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5436 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5437 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5438 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5441 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5442 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5443 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5444 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5446 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5447 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5448 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5451 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5453 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5456 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5458 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5460 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5461 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5462 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5463 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5465 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5466 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5469 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5471 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5472 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5473 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5474 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5475 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5476 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5477 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5478 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5490 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5491 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5492 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5493 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5494 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5499 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5500 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5508 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5513 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5514 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5517 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5518 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5519 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5520 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5522 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5524 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5526 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5527 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5529 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5531 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5533 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5534 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5536 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5539 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5541 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5543 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5545 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5547 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5549 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5551 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5552 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5553 when the hook was created.
5555 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5556 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5557 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5558 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5559 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5560 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5561 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5562 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5563 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5565 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5566 the dlopen family of functions.
5568 ** New function `provided?'
5570 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5571 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5572 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5573 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5575 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5577 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5578 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5579 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5580 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5583 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5584 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5585 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5586 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5588 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5589 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5590 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5593 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5594 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5595 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5596 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5597 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5598 but with the flag set.
5600 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5602 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5603 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5605 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5606 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5607 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5608 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5609 available Scheme format implementations.
5611 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5612 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5613 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5614 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5615 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5616 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5617 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5618 output is to the current error port if available by the
5619 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5622 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5623 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5624 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5625 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5626 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5627 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5628 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5629 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5631 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5632 be executed at a time.
5635 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5637 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5638 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5639 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5641 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5642 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5643 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5644 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5645 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5646 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5647 general form of a directive is:
5649 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5651 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5653 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5655 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5656 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5657 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5660 Any (print as `display' does).
5664 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5668 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5672 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5678 print number sign always.
5681 print comma separated.
5683 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5689 print number sign always.
5692 print comma separated.
5694 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5700 print number sign always.
5703 print comma separated.
5705 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5711 print number sign always.
5714 print comma separated.
5716 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5721 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5725 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5728 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5731 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5734 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5739 prints `y' and `ies'.
5742 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5745 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5750 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5754 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5757 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5758 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5760 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5763 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5764 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5766 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5769 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5771 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5773 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5776 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5778 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5780 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5783 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5786 The sign appears before the padding.
5794 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5796 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5801 print N page separators.
5811 newline is ignored, white space left.
5814 newline is left, white space ignored.
5819 relative tabulation.
5825 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5827 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5830 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5832 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5835 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5838 converts by `string-upcase'.
5841 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5843 jumps N arguments forward.
5846 jumps 1 argument backward.
5849 jumps N arguments backward.
5852 jumps to the 0th argument.
5855 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5857 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5858 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5860 take argument from N.
5863 true test conditional.
5866 if-else-then conditional.
5872 default clause follows.
5875 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5877 at most N iterations.
5880 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5883 args from the rest of arguments.
5886 args from the rest args (lists).
5897 aborts if N <= M <= K
5899 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5902 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5905 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5911 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5913 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5915 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5916 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5917 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5918 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5919 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5920 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5924 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5928 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5934 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5937 Print a `#\space' character
5939 print N `#\space' characters.
5942 Print a `#\tab' character
5944 print N `#\tab' characters.
5947 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5948 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5949 must be a positive decimal number.
5952 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5953 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5954 be processed by `read'.
5957 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5958 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5959 be processed by `read'.
5962 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5965 prints format version.
5968 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5969 and format it accordingly.
5971 *** Configuration Variables
5973 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5974 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5975 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5976 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5979 format:symbol-case-conv
5980 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5981 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5982 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5983 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5984 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5986 format:iobj-case-conv
5987 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5988 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5991 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5994 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6000 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6001 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6002 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6003 `format' padding style.
6006 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6007 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6008 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6009 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6013 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6014 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6015 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6018 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6019 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6020 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6021 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6022 parameters or modifiers)).
6025 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6027 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6029 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6030 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6032 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6033 string-downcase! functions.
6035 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6036 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6038 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6041 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6044 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6045 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6047 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6049 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6050 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6052 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6053 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6054 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6055 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6056 would if STRING were input.
6058 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6060 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6061 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6062 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6063 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6066 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6068 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6069 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6072 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6074 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6075 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6077 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6078 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6080 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6081 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6082 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6083 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6085 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6086 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6088 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6089 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6090 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6092 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6093 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6095 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6096 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6097 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6098 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6099 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6101 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6102 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6103 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6104 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6105 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6106 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6108 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6109 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6110 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6113 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6114 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6115 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6116 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6117 the following grammar:
6118 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6119 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6120 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6121 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6122 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6123 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6124 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6125 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6126 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6127 last option in its combination)
6129 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6130 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6131 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6132 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6134 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6135 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6136 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6138 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6139 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6140 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6142 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6143 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6144 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6145 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6146 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6147 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6148 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6149 ordinary argument strings.
6151 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6152 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6153 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6154 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6156 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6157 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6159 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6160 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6161 - a required option is omitted
6162 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6163 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6164 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6165 - an option predicate fails
6170 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6173 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6174 (verbose (required? #f)
6177 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6178 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6179 (predicate ,string?))))
6181 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6182 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6184 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6185 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6186 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6187 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6190 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6192 It will be removed in a few releases.
6194 ** New syntax: lambda*
6195 ** New syntax: define*
6196 ** New syntax: define*-public
6197 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6198 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6199 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6201 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6202 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6203 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6204 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6205 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6207 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6208 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6209 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6211 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6213 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6214 and examples for `lambda*':
6217 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6219 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6220 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6221 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6222 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6223 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6224 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6225 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6226 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6228 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6230 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6231 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6232 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6233 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6235 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6236 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6237 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6238 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6239 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6240 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6241 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6242 and until the procedure is called.
6244 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6246 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6247 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6248 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6249 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6250 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6251 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6252 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6253 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6254 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6255 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6257 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6258 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6259 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6260 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6263 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6265 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6266 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6267 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6268 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6270 ** New syntax: and-let*
6271 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6273 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6274 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6275 (<variable> <expression>)
6278 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6279 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6280 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6283 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6284 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6285 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6286 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6287 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6288 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6289 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6291 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6292 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6293 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6294 shadow earlier bindings.
6296 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6298 ** New sorting functions
6300 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6301 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6302 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6303 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6305 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6306 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6309 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6310 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6311 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6313 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6314 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6315 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6316 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6318 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6319 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6320 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6321 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6322 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6325 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6326 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6327 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6328 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6329 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6330 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6332 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6333 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6334 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6336 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6337 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6338 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6341 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6342 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6343 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6345 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6346 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6348 ** New built-in random number support
6350 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6351 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6352 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6353 returned have a uniform distribution.
6355 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6356 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6357 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6358 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6359 effect of the `random' operation.
6361 *** New variable: *random-state*
6362 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6363 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6364 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6365 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6366 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6369 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6370 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6371 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6372 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6373 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6375 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6376 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6377 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6378 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6379 initialized using SEED.
6381 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6382 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6383 range between 0 and 1.
6385 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6386 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6387 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6388 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6389 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6390 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6391 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6393 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6394 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6395 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6396 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6397 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6398 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6400 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6401 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6402 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6403 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6405 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6406 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6407 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6408 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6410 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6411 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6412 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6414 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6416 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6419 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6420 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6423 ** New function: make-guardian
6424 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6425 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6426 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6427 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6428 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6430 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6431 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6432 one object if at all.
6434 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6435 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6436 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6438 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6439 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6440 read again in last-in first-out order.
6442 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6443 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6445 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6447 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6448 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6449 file position is used.
6451 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6452 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6453 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6455 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6456 redefined using seek.
6458 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6459 size is not supplied.
6461 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6462 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6464 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6465 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6467 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6469 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6470 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6471 and returns the contents as a single string.
6473 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6474 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6475 lists in serial order.
6477 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6478 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6479 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6481 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6482 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6483 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6484 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6486 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6487 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6488 and #f if an error occured.
6490 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6492 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6493 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6494 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6495 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6497 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6499 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6502 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6504 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6507 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6511 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6512 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6514 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6515 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6519 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6521 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6523 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6524 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6526 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6528 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6529 might change when we get the new module system.
6531 ** The smob interface
6533 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6534 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6536 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6538 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6542 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6543 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6544 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6545 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6546 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6547 will be freed by the default free function.
6549 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6550 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6551 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6552 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6554 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6555 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6556 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6557 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6559 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6561 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6562 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6566 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6567 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6568 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6570 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6571 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6572 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6573 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6575 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6576 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6577 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6579 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6580 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6581 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6582 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6584 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6585 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6586 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6588 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6592 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6594 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6595 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6596 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6598 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6599 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6600 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6602 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6603 a string port's buffer.
6605 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6606 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6607 function pointers which together define the current random number
6608 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6609 number library functions.
6611 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6614 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6615 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6618 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6619 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6621 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6622 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6624 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6625 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6628 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6629 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6630 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6631 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6633 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6634 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6635 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6636 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6637 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6638 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6639 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6641 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6642 by libguile and the application.
6644 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6645 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6646 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6647 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6649 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6650 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6652 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6653 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6654 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6656 ** Random number library functions
6657 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6658 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6659 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6661 The default random state is stored in:
6663 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6664 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6665 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6670 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6672 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6673 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6674 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6675 isn't a random state.
6677 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6678 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6680 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6681 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6682 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6683 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6685 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6686 Return 32 random bits.
6688 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6689 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6691 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6692 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6694 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6695 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6697 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6698 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6700 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6701 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6702 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6706 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6708 * Changes to the distribution
6710 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6711 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6712 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6715 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6716 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6717 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6719 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6720 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6721 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6722 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6725 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6726 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6727 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6729 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6731 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6733 *** Function: batch-mode?
6735 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6738 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6740 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6741 case has not been implemented.
6743 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6744 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6745 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6748 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6749 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6751 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6753 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6755 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6757 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6758 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6761 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6762 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6763 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6764 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6767 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6769 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6770 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6771 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6772 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6773 find those libraries.
6775 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6776 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6779 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6781 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6782 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6783 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6784 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6786 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6787 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6788 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6792 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6794 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6795 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6796 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6799 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6800 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6801 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6802 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6804 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6805 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6808 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6809 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6810 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6811 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6812 compiler where to find the libraries.
6814 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6815 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6816 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6818 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6819 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6820 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6821 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6822 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6826 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6828 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6829 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6830 internationalization support.
6832 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6833 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6834 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6835 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6836 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6838 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6839 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6840 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6841 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6842 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6844 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6845 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6846 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6847 any GNU mirror site.
6849 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6851 ** New function: add-history STRING
6852 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6853 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6854 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6856 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6858 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6859 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6860 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6863 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6864 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6865 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6867 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6869 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6872 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6873 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6876 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6877 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6878 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6879 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6880 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6881 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6883 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6884 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6885 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6886 of the form mentioned above.
6888 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6889 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6890 returned in the special `rest' list.
6892 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6893 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6895 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6897 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6899 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6901 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6902 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6903 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6904 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6905 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6906 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6907 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6908 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6911 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6913 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6915 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6916 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6919 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6920 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6921 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6925 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6926 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6927 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6928 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6929 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6930 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6931 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6932 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6935 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6937 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6938 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6939 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6941 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6943 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6944 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6946 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6947 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6948 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6950 Why do we have this function?
6951 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6952 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6953 primitive, and display it differently, and
6954 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6955 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6958 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6959 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6962 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6963 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6964 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6965 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6967 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6968 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6971 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6972 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6974 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6976 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6977 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6978 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6979 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6980 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6981 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6982 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6985 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6987 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6988 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6990 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6991 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6992 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6993 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6994 properly continue the print chain.
6996 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6997 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6998 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6999 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7000 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7001 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7002 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7003 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7005 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7006 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7007 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7008 safest to not check for these pairs.
7010 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7011 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7012 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7013 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7015 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7017 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7018 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7020 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7022 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7024 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7025 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7026 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7028 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7029 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7030 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7032 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7033 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7034 the following functions and macros:
7036 Function: make-fluid
7038 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7039 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7040 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7041 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7042 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7044 Function: fluid? OBJ
7046 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7048 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7049 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7051 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7052 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7054 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7056 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7057 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7058 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7059 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7060 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7061 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7062 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7064 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7066 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7067 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7068 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7069 should evaluate to a fluid.
7071 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7073 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7074 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7075 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7076 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7077 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7079 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7082 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7084 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7086 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7088 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7091 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7092 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7093 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7094 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7095 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7098 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7099 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7100 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7102 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7103 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7104 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7106 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7107 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7108 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7109 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7111 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7112 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7113 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7114 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7116 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7117 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7118 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7119 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7121 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7122 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7123 their revealed counts set to zero.
7125 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7126 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7128 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7129 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7131 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7132 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7134 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7135 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7136 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7138 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7139 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7140 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7142 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7143 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7144 default environment inherited by child processes.
7146 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7147 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7148 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7150 The return value is unspecified.
7152 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7153 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7154 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7155 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7156 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7158 The return value is unspecified.
7160 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7161 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7169 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7170 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7173 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7176 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7177 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7178 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7180 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7181 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7182 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7183 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7186 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7187 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7189 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7190 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7191 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7192 the `environ' procedure.
7194 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7195 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7198 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7199 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7201 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7202 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7203 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7204 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7206 *** procedure: times
7207 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7208 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7209 return a selected component:
7212 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7216 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7219 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7223 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7224 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7228 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7229 terminated child processes.
7231 ** Removed: list-length
7232 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7233 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7235 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7237 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7239 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7241 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7242 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7243 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7244 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7246 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7247 extra complexity it introduces.
7249 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7250 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7252 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7253 variable to any non-empty value.
7255 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7256 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7258 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7260 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7261 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7263 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7265 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7266 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7268 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7270 ** vector handling routines
7272 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7273 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7274 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7275 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7276 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7278 ** pair and list routines
7280 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7283 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7285 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7288 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7290 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7292 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7293 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7294 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7295 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7296 site-specific initialization code.
7298 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7299 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7300 initialization processes.
7302 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7303 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7304 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7305 initialized properly.
7307 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7308 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7309 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7311 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7312 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7313 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7314 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7315 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7317 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7319 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7320 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7321 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7322 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7323 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7325 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7326 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7327 which look like this:
7330 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7332 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7333 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7336 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7337 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7340 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7342 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7343 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7344 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7346 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7347 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7348 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7349 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7350 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7352 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7353 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7355 int (*free) (SCM port);
7356 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7357 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7358 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7362 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7363 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7364 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7366 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7369 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7370 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7371 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7373 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7374 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7375 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7378 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7382 struct timeval *timeout);
7384 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7385 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7386 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7387 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7388 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7389 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7391 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7392 scm_catch_body_t body,
7394 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7397 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7398 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7399 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7400 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7401 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7402 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7404 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7406 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7409 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7410 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7411 spawning threads from application C code.
7413 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7414 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7415 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7416 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7417 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7418 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7420 ** Removed functions:
7422 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7423 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7425 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7427 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7428 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7430 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7432 ** mbstrings are now removed
7434 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7435 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7437 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7439 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7440 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7441 their new names and arguments:
7443 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7444 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7445 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7446 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7449 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7451 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7453 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7456 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7458 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7459 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7460 pass a #f arg to catch.
7462 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7464 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7465 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7468 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7469 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7470 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7471 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7472 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7473 reclaim its storage.
7475 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7476 worrying that some other function you call will call
7477 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7478 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7479 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7480 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7483 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7485 * Changes to the distribution
7487 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7488 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7491 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7492 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7494 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7495 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7497 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7499 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7500 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7501 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7503 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7505 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7506 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7507 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7508 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7509 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7510 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7512 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7513 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7514 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7517 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7518 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7519 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7520 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7522 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7523 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7524 libraries to your link command:
7526 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7527 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7528 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7529 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7531 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7532 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7533 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7535 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7537 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7538 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7541 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7543 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7544 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7545 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7546 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7547 searched is system dependent.
7549 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7551 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7553 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7555 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7556 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7558 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7560 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7561 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7562 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7563 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7564 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7567 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7569 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7570 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7571 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7572 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7573 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7575 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7577 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7578 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7580 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7582 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7583 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7584 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7587 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7589 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7590 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7591 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7592 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7594 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7595 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7597 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7599 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7600 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7602 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7604 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7605 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7613 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7615 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7616 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7617 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7618 a more informative way.
7620 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7621 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7622 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7623 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7624 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7625 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7627 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7628 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7631 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7632 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7633 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7636 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7637 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7638 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7639 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7640 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7641 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7643 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7644 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7645 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7646 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7649 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7650 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7651 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7652 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7653 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7654 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7656 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7657 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7658 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7659 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7660 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7662 *** regexp functions
7664 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7665 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7666 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7668 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7669 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7670 with SCSH regular expressions.
7672 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7673 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7674 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7675 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7677 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7678 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7679 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7680 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7682 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7683 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7684 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7685 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7686 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7687 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7689 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7690 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7691 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7692 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7693 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7695 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7697 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7698 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7699 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7700 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7702 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7703 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7704 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7706 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7707 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7709 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7712 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7713 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7714 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7716 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7717 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7718 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7720 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7721 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7722 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7723 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7724 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7727 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7729 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7730 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7731 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7732 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7733 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7734 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7736 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7737 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7738 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7740 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7741 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7744 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7745 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7747 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7748 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7749 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7750 may be one of the following arguments:
7752 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7754 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7756 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7757 the regexp match is written.
7759 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7760 following the regexp match is written.
7762 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7763 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7766 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7767 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7768 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7769 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7770 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7771 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7773 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7776 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7777 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7778 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7779 written out to PORT.
7781 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7782 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7783 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7784 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7785 will return after processing a single match.
7787 *** Match Structures
7789 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7790 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7791 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7792 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7793 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7794 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7797 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7798 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7799 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7800 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7801 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7803 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7804 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7805 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7807 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7808 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7809 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7810 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7811 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7813 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7814 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7816 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7817 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7819 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7820 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7822 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7823 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7825 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7826 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7827 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7828 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7830 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7831 Return the original TARGET string.
7833 *** Backslash Escapes
7835 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7836 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7837 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7838 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7839 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7840 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7842 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7843 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7844 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7845 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7846 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7847 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7848 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7849 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7851 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7852 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7853 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7854 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7855 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7856 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7857 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7859 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7860 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7861 return the resulting string.
7863 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7864 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7865 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7866 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7867 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7868 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7869 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7870 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7871 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7872 translated to the single character `*'.
7874 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7875 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7876 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7877 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7878 consecutive backslashes:
7880 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7882 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7883 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7884 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7886 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7887 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7888 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7889 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7890 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7891 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7893 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7895 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7896 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7897 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7898 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7899 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7900 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7901 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7902 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7903 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7904 cumbersome escape syntax.
7906 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7908 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7910 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7912 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7915 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7917 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7919 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7922 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7923 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7924 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7925 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7926 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7928 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7929 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7930 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7931 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7932 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7933 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7934 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7937 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7938 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7939 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7942 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7943 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7945 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7946 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7947 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7948 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7949 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7950 installed, you can say:
7952 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7955 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7957 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7958 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7959 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7960 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7961 new dynamic roots and threads.
7964 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7966 * Changes to the distribution.
7968 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7970 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7971 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7972 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7973 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7974 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7975 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7976 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7977 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7979 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7982 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7983 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7988 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7990 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7991 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7993 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7994 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7995 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7996 the (command-line) function.
7997 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7998 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7999 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8001 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8002 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8003 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8004 command line arguments
8005 -ds do -s script at this point
8006 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8007 -h, --help display this help and exit
8008 -v, --version display version information and exit
8009 \ read arguments from following script lines
8011 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8012 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8014 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8017 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8021 (main (command-line))
8023 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8025 ekko a speckled gecko
8027 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8028 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8029 following list of command-line arguments:
8031 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8033 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8034 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8035 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8036 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8037 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8039 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8041 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8043 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8044 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8047 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8048 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8049 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8050 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8052 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8053 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8054 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8055 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8057 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8061 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8065 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8067 ekko a speckled gecko
8069 Unix expands this into
8071 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8073 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8074 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8076 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8078 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8079 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8081 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8082 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8083 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8084 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8085 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8086 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8087 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8088 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8089 it only terminates the argument list.)
8090 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8091 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8092 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8093 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8094 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8095 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8096 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8097 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8099 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8101 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8102 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8103 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8104 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8105 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8107 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8108 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8109 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8111 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8113 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8114 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8115 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8116 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8119 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8120 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8121 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8123 * Changes to Scheme functions
8125 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8126 and disabled by default.
8128 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8129 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8130 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8131 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8133 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8135 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8137 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8138 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8140 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8141 (read-set! keywords #f)
8143 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8144 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8145 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8148 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8149 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8150 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8153 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8154 support for Scheme functions.
8156 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8157 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8158 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8159 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8162 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8163 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8164 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8167 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8168 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8169 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8172 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8173 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8174 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8175 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8176 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8177 display the result as a prompt.
8178 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8180 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8181 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8182 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8185 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8186 procedure of zero arguments.
8188 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8189 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8190 argument is bound in the current module.
8192 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8193 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8194 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8195 public bindings into the current module.
8197 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8198 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8200 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8201 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8203 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8204 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8206 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8207 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8209 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8210 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8212 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8213 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8214 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8215 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8216 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8218 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8219 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8220 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8221 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8223 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8226 ** Changes to I/O functions
8228 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8229 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8230 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8232 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8233 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8234 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8236 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8237 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8239 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8240 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8241 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8242 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8244 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8246 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8247 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8249 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8250 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8251 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8252 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8253 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8256 'trim omit delimiter from result
8257 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8258 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8259 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8261 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8263 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8264 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8266 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8267 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8268 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8269 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8270 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8272 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8273 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8274 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8276 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8277 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8278 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8279 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8281 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8282 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8284 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8285 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8287 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8289 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8290 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8291 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8292 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8293 a delimiting character.
8294 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8296 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8297 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8298 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8299 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8300 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8301 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8303 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8304 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8306 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8307 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8308 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8310 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8311 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8312 the array to read and write.
8314 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8315 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8318 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8320 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8323 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8324 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8325 Values for COMMAND are:
8327 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8328 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8329 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8330 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8331 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8332 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8333 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8334 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8336 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8338 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8339 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8340 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8341 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8342 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8343 corresponding return set will be the same.
8345 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8348 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8349 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8350 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8351 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8352 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8353 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8354 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8355 special file being created.
8357 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8358 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8360 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8361 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8362 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8363 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8364 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8365 and originating address.
8367 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8368 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8369 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8371 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8374 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8375 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8378 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8379 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8380 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8381 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8382 this function returns #f.
8384 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8385 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8386 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8389 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8390 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8391 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8394 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8395 a valid STATUS value.
8397 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8399 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8400 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8402 Component Accessor Setter
8403 ========================= ============ ============
8404 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8405 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8406 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8407 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8408 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8409 year tm:year set-tm:year
8410 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8411 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8412 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8413 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8414 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8416 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8417 describing the host system:
8420 ============================================== ================
8421 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8422 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8423 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8424 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8425 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8427 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8428 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8429 system's user database:
8432 ====================== =================
8433 user name passwd:name
8434 user password passwd:passwd
8437 real name passwd:gecos
8438 home directory passwd:dir
8439 shell program passwd:shell
8441 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8442 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8443 system's group database:
8446 ======================= ============
8447 group name group:name
8448 group password group:passwd
8450 group members group:mem
8452 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8453 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8457 ========================= ===============
8458 official name of host hostent:name
8459 alias list hostent:aliases
8460 host address type hostent:addrtype
8461 length of address hostent:length
8462 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8464 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8465 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8469 ========================= ===============
8470 official name of net netent:name
8471 alias list netent:aliases
8472 net number type netent:addrtype
8473 net number netent:net
8475 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8476 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8480 ========================= ===============
8481 official protocol name protoent:name
8482 alias list protoent:aliases
8483 protocol number protoent:proto
8485 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8486 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8490 ========================= ===============
8491 official service name servent:name
8492 alias list servent:aliases
8493 port number servent:port
8494 protocol to use servent:proto
8496 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8497 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8500 ======================================== ===============
8501 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8502 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8503 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8504 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8506 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8507 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8508 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8510 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8511 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8513 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8514 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8516 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8517 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8519 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8521 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8523 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8524 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8525 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8527 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8528 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8529 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8530 return the remaining characters as a string.
8532 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8533 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8534 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8536 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8538 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8540 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8543 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8546 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8547 and returns the array
8549 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8550 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8551 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8553 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8555 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8556 symbol's value from C code:
8558 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8559 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8560 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8561 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8563 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8564 without assigning them a value.
8566 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8567 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8568 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8570 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8571 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8572 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8574 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8575 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8577 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8578 doesn't actually care about that.
8580 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8581 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8582 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8584 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8585 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8586 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8587 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8588 which we have just created and initialized.
8590 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8591 should one occur. We call it like this:
8592 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8594 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8595 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8596 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8597 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8598 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8599 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8602 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8603 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8604 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8605 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8606 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8607 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8608 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8611 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8612 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8613 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8614 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8615 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8618 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8619 scm_internal_catch, except:
8621 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8622 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8623 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8624 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8627 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8628 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8629 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8631 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8632 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8633 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8634 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8637 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8638 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8639 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8641 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8642 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8643 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8644 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8645 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8647 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8648 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8649 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8651 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8652 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8653 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8655 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8656 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8658 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8659 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8660 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8663 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8664 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8665 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8666 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8667 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8668 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8669 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8672 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8673 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8675 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8676 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8677 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8678 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8679 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8682 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8683 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8685 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8686 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8689 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8690 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8692 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8695 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8696 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8697 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8698 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8699 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8700 given the following arguments:
8702 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8704 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8706 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8708 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8711 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8712 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8713 command-line arguments.
8715 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8716 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8717 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8718 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8719 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8720 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8723 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8726 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8727 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8729 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8730 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8732 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8733 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8734 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8735 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8737 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8738 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8740 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8741 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8742 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8743 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8745 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8746 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8748 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8749 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8751 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8753 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8754 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8755 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8758 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8759 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8761 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8762 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8767 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8770 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8772 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8773 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8774 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8775 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8777 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8779 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8781 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8782 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8783 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8784 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8785 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8786 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8787 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8788 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8789 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8790 for more information.
8792 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8793 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8795 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8796 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8797 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8798 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8799 following two lines at the top of the file:
8801 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8804 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8805 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8806 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8808 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8810 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8812 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8815 (display (car args))
8816 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8818 (loop (cdr args)))))
8821 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8822 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8823 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8824 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8825 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8826 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8830 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8833 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8836 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8838 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8839 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8840 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8841 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8842 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8845 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8846 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8847 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8848 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8849 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8852 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8855 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8856 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8857 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8860 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8861 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8862 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8864 to see a backtrace, and
8865 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8866 to see them by default.
8870 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8872 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8874 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8875 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8878 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8879 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8880 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8881 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8884 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8885 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8886 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8887 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8888 functions which inspired them.
8890 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8891 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8895 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8897 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8899 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8900 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8903 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8904 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8905 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8907 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8908 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8909 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8910 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8911 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8913 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8915 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8916 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8917 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8920 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8923 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8925 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8926 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8927 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8928 above should serve their purposes.
8930 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8931 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8932 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8933 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8935 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8938 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8939 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8940 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8941 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8943 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8944 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8945 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8946 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8948 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8949 for the `read' function.
8952 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8953 to that of `integer?'.
8955 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8956 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8958 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8959 it simply returns the object's property list.
8961 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8962 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8963 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8964 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8966 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8968 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8971 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8973 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8974 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8976 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8978 void (*main_func) (),
8981 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8982 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8983 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8984 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8985 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8987 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8988 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8989 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8990 know which arguments have been processed.
8992 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8993 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8994 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8995 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8996 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8998 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8999 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9000 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9001 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9002 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9003 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9004 people from making that mistake.
9006 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9007 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9009 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9011 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9015 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9018 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9019 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9020 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9021 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9024 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9025 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9026 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9027 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9030 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9031 have been added to the Guile library.
9033 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9034 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9035 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9038 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9039 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9040 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9042 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9043 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9044 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9045 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9046 argument from the list.
9049 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9052 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9053 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9055 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9056 to a Scheme port object.
9058 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9059 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9064 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9066 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9067 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9068 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9069 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9070 code as a special datatype.
9072 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9073 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9074 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9075 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9076 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9079 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9080 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9081 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9082 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9083 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9085 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9088 Copyright information:
9090 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9092 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9093 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9094 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9095 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9097 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9098 of this document, or of portions of it,
9099 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9100 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9105 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"