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 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
10 * New modules (see the manual for details)
12 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
13 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
15 * Changes to the distribution
17 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
19 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
20 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
22 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
23 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
25 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
26 This slightly improves program startup times.
28 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
29 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
31 * Changes to the C interface
33 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
43 ** Primitive procedures (aka. "subrs") are now stored in double cells
44 This removes the subr table and simplifies the code.
46 ** Primitive procedures with more than 3 arguments (aka. "gsubrs") are
47 no longer implemented using the "compiled closure" mechanism. This
48 simplifies code and reduces both the storage and run-time overhead.
51 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
53 * New modules (see the manual for details)
55 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
59 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
60 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
61 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
62 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
63 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
64 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
65 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
66 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
67 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
69 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
71 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
72 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
73 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
76 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
79 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
81 * New features (see the manual for details)
83 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
85 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
87 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
88 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
89 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
91 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
93 * Changes to the distribution
95 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
97 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
98 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
100 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
102 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
103 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
108 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
109 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
110 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
111 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
112 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
113 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
114 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
115 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
116 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
117 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
118 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
119 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
120 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
121 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
123 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
124 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
125 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
126 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
127 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
130 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
132 * Infrastructure changes
134 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
136 The new repository can be accessed using
137 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
138 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
140 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
142 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
144 * New modules (see the manual for details)
148 * New features (see the manual for details)
150 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
151 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
152 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
154 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
155 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
156 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
157 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
159 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
161 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
162 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
163 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
167 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
168 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
170 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
171 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
173 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
174 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
176 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
177 lead to a stack overflow.
179 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
180 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
181 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
182 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
183 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
184 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
185 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
186 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
187 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
188 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
189 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
190 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
191 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
192 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
193 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
194 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
196 * Changes to the distribution
200 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
201 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
204 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
208 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
209 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
210 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
211 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
212 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
213 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
214 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
215 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
216 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
217 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
218 system and library calls.
219 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
220 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
221 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
222 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
223 uniform vectors on AIX.
224 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
225 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
226 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
227 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
228 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
230 * New modules (see the manual for details)
234 * Documentation fixes and improvements
236 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
238 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
239 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
241 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
243 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
245 * Changes to the distribution
247 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
249 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
250 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
251 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
253 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
255 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
258 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
260 * New modules (see the manual for details)
267 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
268 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
269 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
270 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
271 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
272 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
273 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
275 * Implementation improvements
277 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
278 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
281 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
283 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
285 ** set-program-arguments
288 * Incompatible changes
290 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
292 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
293 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
294 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
295 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
300 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
301 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
302 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
303 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
304 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
305 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
307 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
308 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
309 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
310 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
311 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
312 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
313 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
314 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
315 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
316 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
317 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
318 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
319 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
320 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
321 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
322 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
325 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
327 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
329 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
331 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
332 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
333 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
334 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
335 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
336 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
344 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
346 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
348 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
350 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
352 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
354 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
356 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
357 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
358 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
360 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
362 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
364 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
365 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
367 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
369 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
370 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
372 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
374 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
376 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
378 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
380 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
382 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
384 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
386 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
388 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
390 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
391 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
392 file was on a different device.
395 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
397 * Changes to the distribution
399 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
401 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
403 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
405 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
407 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
409 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
412 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
414 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
415 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
416 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
417 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
418 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
419 items like the versioned share directory name
420 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
422 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
423 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
424 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
425 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
426 with each micro release during a stable series.
428 ** Thread implementation has changed.
430 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
431 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
432 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
433 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
434 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
437 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
438 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
439 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
440 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
443 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
444 in which case "null" threads are used.
446 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
447 "Blocking", and others.
449 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
451 This is a milder form of deprecation.
453 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
454 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
455 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
456 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
457 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
459 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
460 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
462 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
464 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
465 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
467 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
470 This SRFI is always available.
472 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
474 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
475 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
476 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
477 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
480 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
482 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
483 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
484 parameters without currying.
486 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
488 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
489 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
491 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
492 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
495 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
496 with a renaming import, for example.
498 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
500 The official version is good enough now.
502 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
504 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
505 provided. Use 'make html'.
507 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
509 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
510 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
511 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
512 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
514 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
516 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
519 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
521 ** New command line option `-L'.
523 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
525 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
527 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
528 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
530 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
532 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
533 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
535 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
537 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
538 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
541 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
544 (define-module (demo)
548 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
551 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
553 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
555 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
556 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
557 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
559 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
561 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
562 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
564 ** New function hashx-remove!
566 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
568 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
569 barriers and dynamic states.
571 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
572 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
573 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
576 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
577 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
578 Barriers" in the manual.
580 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
581 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
583 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
585 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
586 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
587 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
590 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
592 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
593 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
595 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
596 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
597 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
599 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
600 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
602 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
603 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
604 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
606 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
607 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
608 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
611 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
612 substrings and read-only strings.
614 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
615 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
618 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
620 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
629 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
630 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
631 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
633 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
634 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
635 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
638 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
639 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
642 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
644 See the manual for details.
646 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
648 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
651 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
653 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
654 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
655 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
656 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
658 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
659 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
660 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
663 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
665 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
666 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
677 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
681 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
686 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
690 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
694 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
697 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
698 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
699 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
700 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
702 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
703 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
706 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
709 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
713 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
715 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
716 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
717 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
720 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
723 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
725 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
728 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
729 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
737 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
738 has been detected is to
740 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
741 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
742 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
745 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
748 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
750 to your .guile init file.
752 ** New define-module option: :replace
754 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
757 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
758 for the core binding `format'.
760 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
762 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
763 a prefix to all imported bindings.
766 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
768 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
771 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
773 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
774 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
775 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
777 ** New function: effective-version
779 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
780 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
781 to the distribution" above.
783 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
785 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
786 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
788 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
790 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
791 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
793 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
795 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
796 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
799 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
801 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
803 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
805 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
806 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
807 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
810 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
811 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
812 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
815 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
816 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
818 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
819 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
820 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
823 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
825 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
826 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
829 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
830 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
832 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
833 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
834 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
835 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
836 level for the current thread.
838 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
840 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
842 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
843 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
846 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
848 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
850 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
853 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
855 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
858 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
859 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
860 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
862 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
863 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
864 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
865 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
876 ERROR: Numerical overflow
878 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
881 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
883 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
884 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
885 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
896 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
898 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
899 them is also done exactly, of course:
904 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
907 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
908 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
910 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
912 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
913 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
914 equal to a floating point number. For example:
916 (inexact->exact 1.234)
917 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
919 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
921 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
924 ** New function 'rationalize'.
926 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
927 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
929 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
932 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
933 result when both its arguments are exact.
935 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
937 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
938 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
939 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
941 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
943 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
944 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
945 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
947 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
950 ** pretty-print has more options.
952 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
953 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
954 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
956 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
958 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
959 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
960 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
962 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
964 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
965 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
967 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
969 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
970 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
973 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
975 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
976 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
977 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
978 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
979 without the soft port blocking.
981 ** Deprecated: undefine
983 There is no replacement for undefine.
985 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
986 have been discouraged.
988 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
989 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
990 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
993 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
995 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
997 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
998 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
999 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
1000 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
1003 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
1004 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
1005 be removed in the next major Guile release.
1007 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
1009 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
1010 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1011 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1012 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1013 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1014 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1016 * Changes to the C interface
1018 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1019 take a 'delete' function argument.
1021 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1022 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1024 This is an incompatible change.
1026 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1028 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1029 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1030 --disable-deprecated.
1032 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1034 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1035 Scheme values has been added.
1037 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1038 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1041 - int scm_is_* (...)
1043 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1044 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1046 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1048 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1049 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1052 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1054 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1055 scm_from_int for ints.
1057 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1058 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1059 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1061 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1063 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1064 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1065 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1068 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1070 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1072 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1074 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1075 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1076 following alternatives.
1078 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1079 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1080 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1081 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1083 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1084 do the validating for you.
1086 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1087 have been discouraged.
1089 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1090 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1093 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1095 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1096 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1099 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1101 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1104 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1107 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1109 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1110 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1112 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1113 scm_truncate_number should have.
1115 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1116 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1118 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1121 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1122 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1123 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1125 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1126 easier to use from C.
1128 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1129 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1131 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1132 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1133 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1136 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1137 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1138 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1139 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1142 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1143 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1144 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1145 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1146 and is thus quite efficient.
1148 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1150 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1151 about the character encoding.
1153 Replace according to the following table:
1155 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1156 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1157 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1158 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1159 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1160 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1161 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1162 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1163 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1165 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1166 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1168 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1170 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1171 now also available to C code.
1173 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1175 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1176 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1177 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1179 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1182 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1184 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1185 unceremoniously removed.
1187 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1188 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1189 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1191 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1192 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1193 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1194 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1195 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1196 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1199 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1201 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1202 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1203 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1204 manual for more details.
1206 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1207 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1209 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1210 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1211 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1213 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1215 Migrate according to the following table:
1217 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1218 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1219 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1220 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1221 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1222 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1223 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1225 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1226 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1227 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1228 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1229 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1230 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1231 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1233 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1235 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1236 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1238 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1239 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1240 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1241 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1243 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1245 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1246 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1247 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1249 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1250 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1252 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1253 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1254 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1255 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1257 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1259 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1260 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1261 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1262 prevent a potential memory leak:
1269 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1271 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1272 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1274 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1275 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1282 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1283 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1287 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1289 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1291 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1292 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1293 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1295 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1296 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1298 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1300 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1302 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1303 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1304 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1306 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1307 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1309 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1310 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1311 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1312 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1315 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1317 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1318 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1319 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1321 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1323 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1324 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1326 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1328 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1329 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1331 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1333 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1334 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1335 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1337 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1339 You should not have used them.
1341 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1343 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1344 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1346 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1348 This macro is not intended for public use.
1350 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1352 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1354 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1356 Use scm_is_real instead.
1358 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1360 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1362 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1364 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1365 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1367 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1368 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1370 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1371 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1373 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1375 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1378 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1380 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1381 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1382 to the distribution" above.
1384 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1386 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1387 arguments are now passed directly:
1389 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1391 This is an incompatible change.
1393 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1395 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1396 function in the init section.
1398 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1400 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1402 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1403 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1404 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1405 stays roughly constant.
1407 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1408 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1409 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1410 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1411 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1414 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1415 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1416 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1417 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1419 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1420 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1421 objects for every type.
1424 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1426 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1428 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1430 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1431 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1432 initializes a new cell (see below).
1434 ** New functions for memory management
1436 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1437 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1438 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1439 cause aborts in long running programs.
1441 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1442 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1444 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1445 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1446 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1447 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1448 details and for upgrading instructions.
1450 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1451 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1452 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1454 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1456 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1457 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1458 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1459 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1460 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1462 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1463 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1464 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1466 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1467 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1469 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1471 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1472 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1473 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1474 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1475 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1477 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1479 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1482 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1484 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1486 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1488 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1489 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1491 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1493 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1494 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1496 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1497 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1499 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1501 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1503 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1504 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1505 blocking it is not well defined.
1507 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1509 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1510 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1511 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1512 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1513 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1514 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1515 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1516 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1517 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1518 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1519 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1520 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1521 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1522 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1523 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1524 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1525 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1526 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1527 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1528 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1529 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1530 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1531 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1532 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1533 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1534 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1535 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1536 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1537 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1538 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1539 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1541 * Changes to bundled modules
1545 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1546 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1547 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1548 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1549 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1552 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1554 * Changes to the distribution
1556 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1558 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1560 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1561 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1562 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1563 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1564 indicate major changes in Guile.
1566 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1567 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1568 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1569 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1571 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1572 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1573 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1574 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1575 micro version number.
1577 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1579 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1581 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1582 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1584 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1586 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1587 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1588 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1590 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1592 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1593 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1594 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1597 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1599 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1602 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1604 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1605 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1607 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1609 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1610 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1613 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1615 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1618 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1621 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1623 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1625 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1626 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1627 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1629 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1631 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1633 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1636 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1638 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1640 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1642 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1643 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1644 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1646 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1648 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1650 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1651 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1660 See README there for more info.
1662 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1663 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1666 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1668 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1670 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1672 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1673 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1674 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1676 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1678 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1679 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1680 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1682 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1683 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1685 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1688 (oop goops describe)
1690 (oop goops active-slot)
1691 (oop goops composite-slot)
1693 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1694 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1695 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1697 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1699 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1700 in the default environment:
1702 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1703 %read-line write-line
1705 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1706 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1708 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1710 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1713 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1714 can be used for similar functionality.
1716 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1718 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1719 it defines two procedures:
1721 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1723 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1724 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1725 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1728 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1730 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1731 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1732 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1733 write large strings.
1735 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1737 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1738 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1740 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1742 for complete documentation.
1744 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1746 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1747 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1748 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1749 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1751 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1752 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1756 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1757 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1758 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1761 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1764 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1765 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1767 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1768 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1771 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1774 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1776 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1778 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1780 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1782 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1783 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1784 Scheme programs easier.
1786 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1787 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1788 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1789 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1790 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1793 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1794 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1796 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1799 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1801 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1802 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1803 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1806 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1808 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1810 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1811 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1812 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1813 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1814 was also ASCII, for example.
1816 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1818 tag - no replacement.
1819 fseek - replaced by seek.
1820 list* - replaced by cons*.
1822 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1826 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1827 (define m (make-safe-module))
1828 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1829 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1830 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1832 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1834 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1835 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1836 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1838 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1840 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1841 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1842 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1843 from the issues related to the module system.
1845 *** New function: load-extension
1847 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1849 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1851 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1852 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1853 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1855 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1857 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1858 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1859 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1860 support dynamic linking).
1862 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1864 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1865 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1866 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1867 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1870 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1871 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1872 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1873 library and initialize it explicitly.
1875 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1876 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1878 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1880 (define-module (foo bar))
1882 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1884 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1886 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1887 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1889 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1890 (null-environment 5)
1891 (interaction-environment)
1897 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1899 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1900 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1901 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1902 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1904 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1905 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1906 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1907 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1908 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1909 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1910 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1911 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1912 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1913 one eval to the next.
1915 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1916 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1917 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1918 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1919 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1921 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1922 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1923 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1924 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1925 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1926 used in a lexical environment.
1928 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1929 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1930 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1931 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1932 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1933 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1935 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1937 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1938 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1939 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1940 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1941 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1943 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1944 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1945 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1947 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1948 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1950 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1951 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1952 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1954 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1955 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1957 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1958 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1959 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1960 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1963 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1964 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1965 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1966 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1968 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1969 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1970 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1972 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1973 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1974 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1975 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1976 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1978 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1980 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1981 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1982 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1984 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1985 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1986 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1988 See manual for more info.
1990 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1992 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1993 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1994 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1996 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1998 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1999 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
2000 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
2002 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
2003 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
2004 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
2005 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
2007 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
2009 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
2010 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2012 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2013 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2014 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2015 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2016 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2019 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2020 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2021 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2022 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2023 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2024 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2026 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2027 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2028 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2029 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2030 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2032 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2033 objects are usually permanent.
2035 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2036 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2038 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2040 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2041 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2044 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2048 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2053 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2055 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2056 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2057 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2058 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2060 ** New function `make-object-property'
2062 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2063 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2067 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2068 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2072 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2073 source properties eventually.
2075 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2077 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2078 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2079 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2081 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2082 will be removed in the next release.
2084 ** New define-module option: pure
2086 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2091 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2094 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2096 Export names NAME1 ...
2098 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2099 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2103 (define-module (foo)
2105 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2108 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2113 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2115 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2117 ** New function: port? X
2119 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2120 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2122 ** New function: file-port?
2124 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2126 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2128 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2129 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2130 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2131 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2132 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2134 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2136 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2137 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2138 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2139 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2140 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2143 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2145 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2146 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2147 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2148 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2151 ** New function: crypt password salt
2153 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2156 ** New function: chroot path
2158 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2160 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2162 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2165 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2167 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2169 ** New function: getpass prompt
2171 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2174 ** New function: flock file operation
2176 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2178 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2180 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2183 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2185 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2186 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2187 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2188 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2189 of the temporary file.
2191 ** New function: open-input-string string
2193 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2194 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2195 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2197 ** New function: open-output-string
2199 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2200 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2202 ** New function: get-output-string
2204 Return the contents of an output string port.
2206 ** New function: identity
2208 Return the argument.
2210 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2211 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2213 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2215 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2216 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2217 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2220 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2221 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2223 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2225 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2226 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2227 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2230 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2231 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2232 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2236 Use `identity' instead.
2242 ** Deprecated: return-it
2246 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2248 Use `string-length' instead.
2250 ** Deprecated: flags
2252 Use `logior' instead.
2254 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2256 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2257 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2258 port-for-each is more flexible.
2260 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2261 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2262 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2264 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2266 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2268 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2270 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2272 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2274 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2275 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2277 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2278 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2280 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2281 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2283 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2285 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2286 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2288 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2289 Use module system operations for all variables.
2291 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2293 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2296 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2298 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2299 The following bugs have been fixed:
2301 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2302 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2305 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2306 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2307 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2309 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2310 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2312 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2313 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2316 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2317 The expansion used to be like so:
2319 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2321 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2323 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2325 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2326 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2328 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2330 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2331 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2332 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2336 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2337 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2339 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2344 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2345 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2347 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2348 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2349 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2351 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2354 * Changes to the C interface
2356 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2358 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2359 with "_t". What a concept.
2361 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2363 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2365 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2369 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2370 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2372 *** C Functions removed
2374 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2375 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2376 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2377 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2378 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2379 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2380 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2382 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2384 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2386 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2388 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2390 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2391 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2393 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2395 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2398 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2400 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2402 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2404 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2405 Evaluation" in the manual.
2407 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2409 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2410 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2412 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2414 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2415 Constructors" in the manual.
2417 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2419 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2420 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2422 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2424 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2426 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2427 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2428 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2430 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2432 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2434 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2435 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2436 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2439 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2441 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2443 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2444 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2446 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2448 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2449 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2450 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2451 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2453 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2454 scm_primitive_property_ref
2455 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2456 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2458 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2459 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2461 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2463 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2464 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2465 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2466 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2468 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2470 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2471 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2472 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2473 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2474 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2475 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2476 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2478 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2479 scm_remember_upto_here
2481 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2483 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2485 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2486 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2488 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2490 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2492 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2494 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2496 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2498 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2499 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2500 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2501 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2502 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2503 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2505 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2507 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2509 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2510 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2511 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2513 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2515 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2516 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2517 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2519 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2521 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2522 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2525 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2528 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2529 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2532 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2534 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2536 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2538 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2540 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2542 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2544 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2545 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2546 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2547 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2548 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2549 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2550 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2551 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2552 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2553 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2554 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2555 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2556 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2557 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2558 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2560 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2561 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2562 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2563 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2564 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2565 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2566 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2567 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2568 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2569 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2570 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2571 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2572 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2573 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2574 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2575 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2576 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2577 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2578 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2579 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2580 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2581 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2582 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2583 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2584 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2585 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2586 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2587 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2588 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2590 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2592 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2594 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2595 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2597 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2599 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2601 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2603 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2605 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2607 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2609 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2611 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2613 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2616 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2617 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2619 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2621 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2623 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2625 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2627 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2629 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2631 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2633 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2636 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2638 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2640 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2642 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2643 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2645 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2646 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2648 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2650 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2651 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2652 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2654 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2656 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2658 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2659 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2661 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2662 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2663 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2664 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2666 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2667 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2668 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2670 Use the new ones from above instead.
2672 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2674 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2675 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2676 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2678 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2679 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2681 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2682 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2685 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2686 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2688 Use the new functions instead.
2690 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2693 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2695 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2697 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2700 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2702 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2705 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2707 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2710 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2711 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2712 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2714 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2716 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2717 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2719 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2720 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2721 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2722 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2725 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2727 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2728 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2729 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2730 inexact for an exact.
2732 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2733 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2734 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2737 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2738 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2739 accept an inexact argument.
2741 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2742 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2744 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2747 ** New number validation macros:
2748 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2752 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2754 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2755 scm_unprotect_object.
2757 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2759 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2761 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2764 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2766 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2770 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2772 * Changes to the distribution
2774 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2776 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2777 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2778 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2779 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2780 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2781 obtain these programs.
2782 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2783 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2785 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2786 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2787 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2788 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2789 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2791 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2792 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2793 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2794 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2798 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2801 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2802 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2803 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2804 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2806 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2808 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2810 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2811 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2813 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2814 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2816 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2817 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2819 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2820 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2821 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2822 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2824 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2826 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2830 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2831 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2833 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2835 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2836 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2838 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2839 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2840 number of objects of that kind.
2842 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2844 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2845 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2846 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2847 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2848 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2850 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2852 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2854 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2856 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2859 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2861 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2863 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2865 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2867 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2869 ** New command line option --debug
2871 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2873 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2875 ** New help facility
2877 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2878 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2879 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2880 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2881 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2882 (help) gives this text
2884 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2885 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2887 Examples: (help help)
2889 (help "output-string")
2891 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2893 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2895 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2896 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2899 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2900 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2901 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2904 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2905 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2906 use absolute filenames when possible.
2908 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2909 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2910 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2913 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2915 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2916 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2917 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2918 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2920 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2922 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2924 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2925 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2926 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2928 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2929 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2930 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2932 (read-enable 'positions)
2933 (debug-enable 'debug)
2935 ** Backtraces in scripts
2937 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2941 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2943 at the top of the script.
2945 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2946 The second enables backtraces.)
2948 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2950 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2951 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2952 substantially faster than before.
2954 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2955 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2957 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2958 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2960 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2962 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2963 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2964 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2966 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2967 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2968 when this hook is run in the future.
2970 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2971 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2973 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2975 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2976 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2979 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2980 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2981 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2983 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2984 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2986 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2987 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2989 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2990 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2991 in order not to need further allocation.)
2993 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2996 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2997 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2998 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2999 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
3001 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
3003 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
3006 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
3008 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3011 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3012 GC in percent of total heap size
3015 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3016 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3018 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3020 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3021 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3023 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3025 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3026 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3028 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3030 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3031 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3035 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3036 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3038 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3040 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3042 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3044 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3046 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3048 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3049 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3051 (simple-format port message . args)
3052 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3053 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3054 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3055 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3056 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3057 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3058 Does not add a trailing newline."
3060 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3062 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3063 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3065 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3066 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3068 ** Deprecated: list*
3070 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3072 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3074 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3075 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3077 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3078 is returned as result.
3080 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3082 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3084 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3086 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3087 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3090 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3092 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3094 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3095 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3097 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3099 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3101 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3103 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3105 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3107 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3109 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3111 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3112 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3113 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3115 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3118 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3120 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3121 the readability of argument checking.
3123 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3125 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3127 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3129 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3130 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3131 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3132 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3133 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3134 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3135 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3137 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3139 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3141 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3142 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3144 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3146 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3147 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3150 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3152 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3153 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3154 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3156 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3157 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3158 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3160 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3161 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3162 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3163 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3164 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3165 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3166 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3168 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3169 scm_end_input (object);
3170 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3171 ptob->flush (object);
3173 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3174 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3177 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3179 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3181 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3182 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3183 removed in a future version.
3185 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3187 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3188 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3189 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3190 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3192 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3193 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3195 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3198 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3200 in your configure.in.
3202 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3207 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3213 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3215 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3219 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3220 (define make-message string-append)
3222 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3224 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3228 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3233 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3237 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3239 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3240 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3242 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3244 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3245 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3246 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3247 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3248 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3249 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3251 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3252 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3253 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3255 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3256 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3257 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3260 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3261 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3262 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3263 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3264 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3266 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3267 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3268 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3269 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3270 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3271 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3272 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3274 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3276 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3277 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3278 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3280 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3281 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3282 KEY in the calling thread.
3284 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3285 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3286 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3287 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3288 associated with the key.
3290 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3292 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3293 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3295 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3297 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3298 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3299 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3301 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3303 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3304 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3306 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3308 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3310 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3311 returned is undefined.
3313 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3314 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3315 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3317 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3318 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3319 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3321 ** New C level GC hooks
3323 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3325 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3328 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3329 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3330 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3332 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3333 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3334 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3336 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3337 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3340 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3342 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3343 allocation parameters
3345 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3346 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3347 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3351 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3352 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3353 scm_default_max_segment_size
3355 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3357 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3358 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3360 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3362 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3363 object and count on the object being protected until
3364 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3366 The functions also have better time complexity.
3368 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3369 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3370 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3371 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3372 are no longer needed.
3374 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3376 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3377 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3378 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3379 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3381 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3383 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3385 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3387 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3388 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3389 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3390 until this issue has been settled.
3392 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3394 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3396 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3399 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3401 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3403 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3404 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3405 descriptors were checked.
3407 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3408 atomically written to a pipe.
3410 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3411 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3412 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3413 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3414 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3415 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3416 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3419 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3420 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3421 is changed without calling tzset.
3423 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3425 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3426 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3427 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3429 (define write-network-long
3430 (lambda (value port)
3431 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3432 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3433 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3435 (define read-network-long
3437 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3438 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3439 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3441 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3442 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3444 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3445 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3446 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3447 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3449 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3450 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3451 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3452 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3456 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3458 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3462 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3463 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3464 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3470 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3471 for a description of available commands.
3473 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3474 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3475 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3477 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3479 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3480 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3482 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3484 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3486 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3487 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3488 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3489 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3490 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3491 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3494 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3496 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3497 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3498 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3499 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3501 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3502 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3504 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3506 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3508 ** Readline support has changed again.
3510 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3511 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3512 to activate readline is now
3514 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3517 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3519 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3520 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3521 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3524 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3525 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3526 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3529 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3530 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3531 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3532 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3533 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3534 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3536 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3537 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3539 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3541 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3542 object it receives is the same string passed to
3543 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3544 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3545 string, not the suffix.
3547 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3548 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3549 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3551 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3553 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3554 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3555 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3556 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3559 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3561 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3563 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3564 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3565 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3566 appear from left to right.
3568 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3571 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3573 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3574 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3576 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3580 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3582 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3584 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3586 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3587 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3588 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3590 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3592 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3594 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3596 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3599 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3601 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3602 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3603 mentioning it here anyway.
3605 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3607 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3608 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3609 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3610 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3613 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3615 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3617 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3619 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3620 otherwise return #f.
3622 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3624 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3625 returned by `opendir'.
3627 ** New function: using-readline?
3629 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3631 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3633 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3634 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3636 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3638 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3640 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3641 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3642 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3644 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3646 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3647 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3649 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3651 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3652 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3653 documentation slots are not yet used.
3655 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3657 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3658 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3659 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3664 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3665 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3666 (string-append x y))
3668 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3669 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3671 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3672 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3673 be made in a clean way.]
3675 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3677 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3679 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3681 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3682 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3684 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3686 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3688 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3690 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3692 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3693 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3694 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3695 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3698 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3700 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3702 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3704 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3706 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3707 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3709 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3711 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3713 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3715 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3717 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3718 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3719 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3720 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3721 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3722 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3724 This should not make any difference for most users.
3726 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3728 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3729 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3731 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3733 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3734 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3735 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3736 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3737 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3739 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3741 It is now replaced by:
3743 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3745 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3746 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3748 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3750 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3751 This might change when we get the new module system.
3753 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3757 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3759 * Changes to mailing lists
3761 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3763 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3766 * Changes to the distribution
3768 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3770 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3771 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3772 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3773 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3774 you explicitly specify it.
3776 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3777 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3778 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3779 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3780 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3783 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3784 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3785 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3786 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3788 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3789 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3790 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3793 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3795 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3798 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3800 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3802 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3803 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3804 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3805 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3807 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3808 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3811 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3813 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3814 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3815 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3816 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3817 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3818 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3819 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3820 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3832 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3833 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3834 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3835 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3836 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3841 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3842 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3850 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3855 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3856 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3859 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3860 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3861 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3862 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3864 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3866 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3868 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3869 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3871 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3873 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3875 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3876 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3878 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3881 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3883 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3885 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3887 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3889 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3891 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3893 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3894 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3895 when the hook was created.
3897 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3898 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3899 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3900 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3901 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3902 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3903 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3904 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3905 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3907 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3908 the dlopen family of functions.
3910 ** New function `provided?'
3912 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3913 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3914 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3915 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3917 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3919 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3920 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3921 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3922 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3925 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3926 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3927 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3928 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3930 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3931 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3932 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3935 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3936 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3937 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3938 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3939 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3940 but with the flag set.
3942 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3944 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3945 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3947 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3948 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3949 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3950 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3951 available Scheme format implementations.
3953 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3954 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3955 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3956 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3957 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3958 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3959 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3960 output is to the current error port if available by the
3961 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3964 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3965 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3966 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3967 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3968 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3969 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3970 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3971 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3973 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3974 be executed at a time.
3977 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3979 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3980 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3981 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3983 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3984 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3985 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3986 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3987 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3988 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3989 general form of a directive is:
3991 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3993 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3995 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3997 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3998 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3999 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
4002 Any (print as `display' does).
4006 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
4010 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4014 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4020 print number sign always.
4023 print comma separated.
4025 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4031 print number sign always.
4034 print comma separated.
4036 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4042 print number sign always.
4045 print comma separated.
4047 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4053 print number sign always.
4056 print comma separated.
4058 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4063 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4067 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4070 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4073 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4076 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4081 prints `y' and `ies'.
4084 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4087 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4092 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4096 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4099 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4100 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4102 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4105 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4106 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4108 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4111 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4113 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4115 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4118 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4120 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4122 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4125 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4128 The sign appears before the padding.
4136 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4138 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4143 print N page separators.
4153 newline is ignored, white space left.
4156 newline is left, white space ignored.
4161 relative tabulation.
4167 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4169 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4172 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4174 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4177 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4180 converts by `string-upcase'.
4183 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4185 jumps N arguments forward.
4188 jumps 1 argument backward.
4191 jumps N arguments backward.
4194 jumps to the 0th argument.
4197 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4199 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4200 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4202 take argument from N.
4205 true test conditional.
4208 if-else-then conditional.
4214 default clause follows.
4217 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4219 at most N iterations.
4222 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4225 args from the rest of arguments.
4228 args from the rest args (lists).
4239 aborts if N <= M <= K
4241 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4244 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4247 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4253 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4255 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4257 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4258 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4259 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4260 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4261 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4262 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4266 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4270 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4276 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4279 Print a `#\space' character
4281 print N `#\space' characters.
4284 Print a `#\tab' character
4286 print N `#\tab' characters.
4289 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4290 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4291 must be a positive decimal number.
4294 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4295 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4296 be processed by `read'.
4299 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4300 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4301 be processed by `read'.
4304 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4307 prints format version.
4310 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4311 and format it accordingly.
4313 *** Configuration Variables
4315 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4316 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4317 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4318 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4321 format:symbol-case-conv
4322 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4323 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4324 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4325 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4326 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4328 format:iobj-case-conv
4329 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4330 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4333 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4336 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4342 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4343 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4344 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4345 `format' padding style.
4348 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4349 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4350 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4351 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4355 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4356 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4357 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4360 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4361 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4362 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4363 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4364 parameters or modifiers)).
4367 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4369 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4371 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4372 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4374 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4375 string-downcase! functions.
4377 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4378 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4380 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4383 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4386 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4387 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4389 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4391 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4392 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4394 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4395 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4396 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4397 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4398 would if STRING were input.
4400 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4402 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4403 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4404 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4405 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4408 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4410 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4411 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4414 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4416 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4417 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4419 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4420 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4422 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4423 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4424 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4425 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4427 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4428 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4430 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4431 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4432 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4434 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4435 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4437 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4438 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4439 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4440 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4441 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4443 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4444 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4445 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4446 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4447 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4448 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4450 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4451 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4452 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4455 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4456 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4457 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4458 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4459 the following grammar:
4460 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4461 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4462 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4463 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4464 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4465 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4466 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4467 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4468 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4469 last option in its combination)
4471 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4472 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4473 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4474 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4476 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4477 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4478 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4480 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4481 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4482 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4484 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4485 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4486 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4487 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4488 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4489 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4490 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4491 ordinary argument strings.
4493 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4494 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4495 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4496 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4498 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4499 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4501 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4502 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4503 - a required option is omitted
4504 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4505 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4506 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4507 - an option predicate fails
4512 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4515 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4516 (verbose (required? #f)
4519 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4520 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4521 (predicate ,string?))))
4523 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4524 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4526 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4527 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4528 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4529 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4532 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4534 It will be removed in a few releases.
4536 ** New syntax: lambda*
4537 ** New syntax: define*
4538 ** New syntax: define*-public
4539 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4540 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4541 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4543 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4544 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4545 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4546 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4547 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4549 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4550 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4551 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4553 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4555 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4556 and examples for `lambda*':
4559 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4561 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4562 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4563 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4564 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4565 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4566 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4567 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4568 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4570 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4572 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4573 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4574 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4575 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4577 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4578 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4579 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4580 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4581 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4582 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4583 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4584 and until the procedure is called.
4586 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4588 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4589 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4590 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4591 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4592 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4593 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4594 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4595 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4596 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4597 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4599 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4600 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4601 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4602 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4605 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4607 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4608 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4609 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4610 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4612 ** New syntax: and-let*
4613 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4615 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4616 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4617 (<variable> <expression>)
4620 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4621 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4622 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4625 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4626 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4627 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4628 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4629 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4630 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4631 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4633 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4634 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4635 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4636 shadow earlier bindings.
4638 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4640 ** New sorting functions
4642 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4643 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4644 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4645 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4647 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4648 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4651 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4652 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4653 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4655 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4656 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4657 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4658 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4660 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4661 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4662 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4663 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4664 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4667 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4668 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4669 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4670 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4671 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4672 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4674 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4675 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4676 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4678 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4679 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4680 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4683 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4684 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4685 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4687 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4688 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4690 ** New built-in random number support
4692 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4693 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4694 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4695 returned have a uniform distribution.
4697 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4698 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4699 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4700 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4701 effect of the `random' operation.
4703 *** New variable: *random-state*
4704 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4705 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4706 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4707 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4708 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4711 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4712 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4713 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4714 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4715 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4717 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4718 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4719 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4720 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4721 initialized using SEED.
4723 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4724 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4725 range between 0 and 1.
4727 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4728 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4729 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4730 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4731 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4732 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4733 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4735 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4736 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4737 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4738 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4739 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4740 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4742 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4743 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4744 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4745 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4747 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4748 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4749 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4750 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4752 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4753 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4754 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4756 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4758 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4761 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4762 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4765 ** New function: make-guardian
4766 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4767 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4768 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4769 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4770 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4772 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4773 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4774 one object if at all.
4776 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4777 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4778 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4780 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4781 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4782 read again in last-in first-out order.
4784 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4785 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4787 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4789 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4790 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4791 file position is used.
4793 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4794 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4795 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4797 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4798 redefined using seek.
4800 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4801 size is not supplied.
4803 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4804 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4806 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4807 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4809 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4811 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4812 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4813 and returns the contents as a single string.
4815 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4816 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4817 lists in serial order.
4819 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4820 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4821 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4823 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4824 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4825 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4826 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4828 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4829 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4830 and #f if an error occured.
4832 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4834 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4835 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4836 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4837 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4839 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4841 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4844 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4846 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4849 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4853 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4854 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4856 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4857 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4861 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4863 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4865 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4866 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4868 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4870 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4871 might change when we get the new module system.
4873 ** The smob interface
4875 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4876 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4878 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4880 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4884 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4885 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4886 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4887 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4888 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4889 will be freed by the default free function.
4891 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4892 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4893 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4894 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4896 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4897 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4898 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4899 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4901 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4903 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4904 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4908 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4909 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4910 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4912 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4913 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4914 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4915 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4917 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4918 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4919 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4921 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4922 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4923 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4924 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4926 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4927 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4928 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4930 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4934 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4936 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4937 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4938 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4940 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4941 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4942 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4944 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4945 a string port's buffer.
4947 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4948 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4949 function pointers which together define the current random number
4950 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4951 number library functions.
4953 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4956 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4957 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4960 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4961 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4963 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4964 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4966 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4967 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4970 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4971 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4972 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4973 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4975 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4976 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4977 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4978 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4979 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4980 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4981 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4983 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4984 by libguile and the application.
4986 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4987 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4988 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4989 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4991 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4992 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4994 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4995 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4996 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4998 ** Random number library functions
4999 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
5000 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
5001 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
5003 The default random state is stored in:
5005 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
5006 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
5007 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5012 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5014 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5015 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5016 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5017 isn't a random state.
5019 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5020 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5022 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5023 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5024 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5025 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5027 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5028 Return 32 random bits.
5030 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5031 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5033 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5034 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5036 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5037 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5039 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5040 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5042 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5043 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5044 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5048 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5050 * Changes to the distribution
5052 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5053 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5054 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5057 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5058 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5059 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5061 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5062 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5063 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5064 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5067 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5068 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5069 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5071 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5073 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5075 *** Function: batch-mode?
5077 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5080 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5082 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5083 case has not been implemented.
5085 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5086 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5087 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5090 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5091 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5093 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5095 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5097 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5099 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5100 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5103 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5104 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5105 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5106 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5109 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5111 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5112 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5113 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5114 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5115 find those libraries.
5117 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5118 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5121 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5123 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5124 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5125 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5126 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5128 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5129 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5130 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5134 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5136 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5137 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5138 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5141 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5142 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5143 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5144 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5146 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5147 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5150 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5151 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5152 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5153 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5154 compiler where to find the libraries.
5156 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5157 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5158 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5160 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5161 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5162 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5163 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5164 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5168 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5170 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5171 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5172 internationalization support.
5174 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5175 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5176 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5177 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5178 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5180 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5181 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5182 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5183 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5184 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5186 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5187 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5188 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5189 any GNU mirror site.
5191 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5193 ** New function: add-history STRING
5194 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5195 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5196 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5198 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5200 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5201 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5202 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5205 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5206 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5207 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5209 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5211 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5214 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5215 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5218 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5219 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5220 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5221 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5222 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5223 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5225 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5226 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5227 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5228 of the form mentioned above.
5230 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5231 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5232 returned in the special `rest' list.
5234 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5235 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5237 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5239 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5241 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5243 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5244 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5245 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5246 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5247 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5248 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5249 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5250 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5253 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5255 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5257 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5258 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5261 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5262 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5263 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5267 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5268 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5269 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5270 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5271 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5272 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5273 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5274 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5277 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5279 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5280 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5281 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5283 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5285 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5286 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5288 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5289 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5290 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5292 Why do we have this function?
5293 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5294 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5295 primitive, and display it differently, and
5296 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5297 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5300 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5301 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5304 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5305 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5306 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5307 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5309 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5310 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5313 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5314 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5316 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5318 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5319 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5320 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5321 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5322 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5323 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5324 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5327 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5329 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5330 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5332 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5333 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5334 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5335 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5336 properly continue the print chain.
5338 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5339 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5340 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5341 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5342 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5343 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5344 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5345 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5347 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5348 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5349 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5350 safest to not check for these pairs.
5352 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5353 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5354 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5355 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5357 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5359 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5360 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5362 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5364 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5366 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5367 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5368 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5370 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5371 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5372 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5374 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5375 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5376 the following functions and macros:
5378 Function: make-fluid
5380 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5381 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5382 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5383 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5384 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5386 Function: fluid? OBJ
5388 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5390 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5391 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5393 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5394 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5396 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5398 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5399 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5400 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5401 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5402 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5403 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5404 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5406 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5408 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5409 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5410 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5411 should evaluate to a fluid.
5413 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5415 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5416 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5417 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5418 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5419 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5421 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5424 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5426 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5428 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5430 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5433 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5434 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5435 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5436 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5437 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5440 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5441 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5442 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5444 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5445 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5446 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5448 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5449 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5450 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5451 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5453 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5454 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5455 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5456 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5458 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5459 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5460 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5461 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5463 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5464 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5465 their revealed counts set to zero.
5467 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5468 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5470 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5471 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5473 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5474 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5476 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5477 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5478 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5480 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5481 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5482 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5484 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5485 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5486 default environment inherited by child processes.
5488 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5489 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5490 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5492 The return value is unspecified.
5494 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5495 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5496 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5497 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5498 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5500 The return value is unspecified.
5502 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5503 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5511 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5512 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5515 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5518 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5519 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5520 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5522 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5523 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5524 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5525 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5528 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5529 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5531 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5532 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5533 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5534 the `environ' procedure.
5536 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5537 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5540 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5541 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5543 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5544 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5545 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5546 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5548 *** procedure: times
5549 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5550 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5551 return a selected component:
5554 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5558 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5561 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5565 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5566 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5570 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5571 terminated child processes.
5573 ** Removed: list-length
5574 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5575 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5577 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5579 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5581 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5583 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5584 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5585 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5586 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5588 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5589 extra complexity it introduces.
5591 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5592 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5594 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5595 variable to any non-empty value.
5597 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5598 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5600 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5602 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5603 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5605 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5607 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5608 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5610 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5612 ** vector handling routines
5614 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5615 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5616 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5617 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5618 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5620 ** pair and list routines
5622 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5625 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5627 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5630 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5632 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5634 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5635 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5636 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5637 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5638 site-specific initialization code.
5640 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5641 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5642 initialization processes.
5644 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5645 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5646 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5647 initialized properly.
5649 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5650 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5651 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5653 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5654 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5655 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5656 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5657 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5659 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5661 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5662 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5663 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5664 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5665 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5667 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5668 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5669 which look like this:
5672 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5674 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5675 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5678 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5679 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5682 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5684 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5685 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5686 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5688 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5689 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5690 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5691 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5692 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5694 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5695 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5697 int (*free) (SCM port);
5698 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5699 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5700 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5704 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5705 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5706 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5708 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5711 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5712 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5713 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5715 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5716 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5717 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5720 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5724 struct timeval *timeout);
5726 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5727 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5728 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5729 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5730 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5731 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5733 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5734 scm_catch_body_t body,
5736 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5739 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5740 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5741 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5742 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5743 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5744 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5746 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5748 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5751 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5752 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5753 spawning threads from application C code.
5755 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5756 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5757 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5758 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5759 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5760 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5762 ** Removed functions:
5764 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5765 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5767 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5769 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5770 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5772 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5774 ** mbstrings are now removed
5776 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5777 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5779 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5781 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5782 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5783 their new names and arguments:
5785 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5786 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5787 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5788 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5791 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5793 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5795 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5798 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5800 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5801 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5802 pass a #f arg to catch.
5804 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5806 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5807 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5810 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5811 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5812 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5813 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5814 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5815 reclaim its storage.
5817 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5818 worrying that some other function you call will call
5819 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5820 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5821 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5822 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5825 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5827 * Changes to the distribution
5829 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5830 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5833 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5834 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5836 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5837 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5839 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5841 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5842 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5843 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5845 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5847 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5848 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5849 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5850 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5851 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5852 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5854 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5855 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5856 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5859 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5860 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5861 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5862 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5864 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5865 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5866 libraries to your link command:
5868 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5869 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5870 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5871 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5873 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5874 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5875 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5877 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5879 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5880 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5883 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5885 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5886 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5887 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5888 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5889 searched is system dependent.
5891 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5893 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5895 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5897 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5898 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5900 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5902 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5903 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5904 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5905 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5906 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5909 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5911 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5912 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5913 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5914 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5915 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5917 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5919 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5920 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5922 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5924 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5925 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5926 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5929 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5931 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5932 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5933 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5934 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5936 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5937 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5939 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5941 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5942 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5944 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5946 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5947 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5955 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5957 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5958 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5959 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5960 a more informative way.
5962 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5963 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5964 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5965 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5966 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5967 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5969 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5970 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5973 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5974 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5975 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5978 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5979 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5980 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5981 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5982 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5983 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5985 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5986 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5987 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5988 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5991 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5992 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5993 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5994 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5995 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5996 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5998 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5999 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
6000 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
6001 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
6002 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
6004 *** regexp functions
6006 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
6007 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
6008 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
6010 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6011 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6012 with SCSH regular expressions.
6014 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6015 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6016 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6017 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6019 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6020 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6021 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6022 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6024 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6025 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6026 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6027 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6028 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6029 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6031 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6032 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6033 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6034 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6035 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6037 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6039 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6040 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6041 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6042 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6044 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6045 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6046 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6048 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6049 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6051 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6054 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6055 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6056 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6058 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6059 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6060 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6062 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6063 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6064 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6065 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6066 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6069 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6071 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6072 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6073 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6074 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6075 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6076 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6078 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6079 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6080 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6082 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6083 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6086 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6087 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6089 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6090 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6091 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6092 may be one of the following arguments:
6094 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6096 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6098 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6099 the regexp match is written.
6101 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6102 following the regexp match is written.
6104 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6105 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6108 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6109 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6110 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6111 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6112 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6113 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6115 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6118 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6119 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6120 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6121 written out to PORT.
6123 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6124 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6125 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6126 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6127 will return after processing a single match.
6129 *** Match Structures
6131 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6132 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6133 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6134 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6135 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6136 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6139 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6140 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6141 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6142 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6143 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6145 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6146 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6147 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6149 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6150 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6151 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6152 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6153 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6155 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6156 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6158 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6159 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6161 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6162 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6164 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6165 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6167 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6168 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6169 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6170 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6172 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6173 Return the original TARGET string.
6175 *** Backslash Escapes
6177 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6178 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6179 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6180 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6181 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6182 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6184 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6185 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6186 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6187 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6188 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6189 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6190 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6191 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6193 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6194 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6195 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6196 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6197 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6198 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6199 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6201 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6202 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6203 return the resulting string.
6205 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6206 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6207 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6208 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6209 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6210 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6211 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6212 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6213 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6214 translated to the single character `*'.
6216 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6217 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6218 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6219 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6220 consecutive backslashes:
6222 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6224 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6225 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6226 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6228 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6229 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6230 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6231 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6232 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6233 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6235 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6237 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6238 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6239 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6240 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6241 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6242 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6243 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6244 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6245 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6246 cumbersome escape syntax.
6248 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6250 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6252 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6254 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6257 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6259 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6261 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6264 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6265 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6266 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6267 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6268 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6270 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6271 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6272 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6273 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6274 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6275 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6276 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6279 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6280 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6281 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6284 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6285 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6287 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6288 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6289 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6290 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6291 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6292 installed, you can say:
6294 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6297 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6299 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6300 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6301 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6302 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6303 new dynamic roots and threads.
6306 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6308 * Changes to the distribution.
6310 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6312 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6313 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6314 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6315 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6316 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6317 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6318 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6319 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6321 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6324 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6325 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6330 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6332 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6333 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6335 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6336 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6337 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6338 the (command-line) function.
6339 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6340 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6341 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6343 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6344 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6345 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6346 command line arguments
6347 -ds do -s script at this point
6348 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6349 -h, --help display this help and exit
6350 -v, --version display version information and exit
6351 \ read arguments from following script lines
6353 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6354 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6356 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6359 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6363 (main (command-line))
6365 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6367 ekko a speckled gecko
6369 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6370 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6371 following list of command-line arguments:
6373 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6375 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6376 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6377 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6378 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6379 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6381 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6383 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6385 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6386 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6389 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6390 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6391 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6392 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6394 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6395 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6396 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6397 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6399 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6403 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6407 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6409 ekko a speckled gecko
6411 Unix expands this into
6413 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6415 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6416 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6418 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6420 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6421 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6423 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6424 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6425 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6426 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6427 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6428 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6429 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6430 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6431 it only terminates the argument list.)
6432 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6433 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6434 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6435 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6436 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6437 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6438 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6439 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6441 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6443 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6444 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6445 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6446 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6447 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6449 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6450 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6451 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6453 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6455 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6456 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6457 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6458 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6461 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6462 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6463 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6465 * Changes to Scheme functions
6467 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6468 and disabled by default.
6470 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6471 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6472 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6473 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6475 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6477 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6479 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6480 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6482 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6483 (read-set! keywords #f)
6485 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6486 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6487 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6490 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6491 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6492 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6495 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6496 support for Scheme functions.
6498 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6499 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6500 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6501 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6504 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6505 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6506 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6509 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6510 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6511 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6514 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6515 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6516 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6517 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6518 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6519 display the result as a prompt.
6520 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6522 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6523 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6524 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6527 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6528 procedure of zero arguments.
6530 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6531 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6532 argument is bound in the current module.
6534 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6535 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6536 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6537 public bindings into the current module.
6539 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6540 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6542 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6543 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6545 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6546 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6548 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6549 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6551 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6552 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6554 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6555 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6556 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6557 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6558 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6560 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6561 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6562 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6563 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6565 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6568 ** Changes to I/O functions
6570 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6571 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6572 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6574 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6575 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6576 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6578 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6579 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6581 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6582 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6583 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6584 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6586 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6588 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6589 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6591 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6592 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6593 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6594 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6595 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6598 'trim omit delimiter from result
6599 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6600 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6601 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6603 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6605 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6606 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6608 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6609 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6610 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6611 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6612 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6614 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6615 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6616 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6618 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6619 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6620 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6621 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6623 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6624 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6626 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6627 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6629 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6631 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6632 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6633 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6634 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6635 a delimiting character.
6636 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6638 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6639 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6640 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6641 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6642 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6643 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6645 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6646 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6648 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6649 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6650 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6652 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6653 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6654 the array to read and write.
6656 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6657 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6660 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6662 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6665 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6666 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6667 Values for COMMAND are:
6669 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6670 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6671 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6672 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6673 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6674 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6675 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6676 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6678 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6680 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6681 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6682 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6683 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6684 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6685 corresponding return set will be the same.
6687 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6690 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6691 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6692 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6693 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6694 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6695 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6696 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6697 special file being created.
6699 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6700 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6702 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6703 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6704 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6705 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6706 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6707 and originating address.
6709 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6710 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6711 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6713 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6716 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6717 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6720 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6721 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6722 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6723 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6724 this function returns #f.
6726 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6727 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6728 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6731 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6732 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6733 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6736 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6737 a valid STATUS value.
6739 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6741 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6742 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6744 Component Accessor Setter
6745 ========================= ============ ============
6746 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6747 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6748 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6749 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6750 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6751 year tm:year set-tm:year
6752 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6753 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6754 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6755 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6756 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6758 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6759 describing the host system:
6762 ============================================== ================
6763 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6764 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6765 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6766 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6767 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6769 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6770 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6771 system's user database:
6774 ====================== =================
6775 user name passwd:name
6776 user password passwd:passwd
6779 real name passwd:gecos
6780 home directory passwd:dir
6781 shell program passwd:shell
6783 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6784 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6785 system's group database:
6788 ======================= ============
6789 group name group:name
6790 group password group:passwd
6792 group members group:mem
6794 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6795 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6799 ========================= ===============
6800 official name of host hostent:name
6801 alias list hostent:aliases
6802 host address type hostent:addrtype
6803 length of address hostent:length
6804 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6806 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6807 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6811 ========================= ===============
6812 official name of net netent:name
6813 alias list netent:aliases
6814 net number type netent:addrtype
6815 net number netent:net
6817 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6818 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6822 ========================= ===============
6823 official protocol name protoent:name
6824 alias list protoent:aliases
6825 protocol number protoent:proto
6827 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6828 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6832 ========================= ===============
6833 official service name servent:name
6834 alias list servent:aliases
6835 port number servent:port
6836 protocol to use servent:proto
6838 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6839 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6842 ======================================== ===============
6843 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6844 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6845 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6846 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6848 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6849 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6850 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6852 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6853 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6855 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6856 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6858 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6859 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6861 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6863 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6865 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6866 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6867 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6869 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6870 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6871 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6872 return the remaining characters as a string.
6874 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6875 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6876 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6878 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6880 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6882 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6885 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6888 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6889 and returns the array
6891 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6892 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6893 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6895 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6897 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6898 symbol's value from C code:
6900 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6901 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6902 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6903 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6905 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6906 without assigning them a value.
6908 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6909 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6910 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6912 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6913 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6914 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6916 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6917 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6919 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6920 doesn't actually care about that.
6922 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6923 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6924 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6926 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6927 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6928 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6929 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6930 which we have just created and initialized.
6932 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6933 should one occur. We call it like this:
6934 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6936 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6937 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6938 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6939 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6940 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6941 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6944 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6945 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6946 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6947 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6948 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6949 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6950 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6953 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6954 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6955 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6956 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6957 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6960 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6961 scm_internal_catch, except:
6963 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6964 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6965 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6966 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6969 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6970 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6971 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6973 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6974 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6975 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6976 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6979 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6980 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6981 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6983 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6984 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6985 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6986 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6987 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6989 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6990 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6991 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6993 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6994 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6995 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6997 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6998 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
7000 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
7001 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
7002 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
7005 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
7006 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
7007 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
7008 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
7009 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
7010 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7011 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7014 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7015 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7017 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7018 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7019 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7020 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7021 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7024 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7025 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7027 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7028 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7031 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7032 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7034 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7037 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7038 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7039 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7040 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7041 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7042 given the following arguments:
7044 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7046 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7048 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7050 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7053 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7054 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7055 command-line arguments.
7057 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7058 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7059 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7060 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7061 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7062 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7065 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7068 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7069 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7071 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7072 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7074 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7075 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7076 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7077 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7079 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7080 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7082 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7083 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7084 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7085 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7087 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7088 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7090 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7091 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7093 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7095 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7096 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7097 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7100 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7101 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7103 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7104 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7109 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7112 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7114 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7115 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7116 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7117 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7119 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7121 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7123 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7124 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7125 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7126 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7127 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7128 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7129 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7130 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7131 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7132 for more information.
7134 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7135 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7137 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7138 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7139 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7140 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7141 following two lines at the top of the file:
7143 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7146 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7147 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7148 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7150 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7152 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7154 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7157 (display (car args))
7158 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7160 (loop (cdr args)))))
7163 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7164 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7165 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7166 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7167 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7168 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7172 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7175 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7178 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7180 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7181 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7182 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7183 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7184 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7187 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7188 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7189 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7190 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7191 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7194 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7197 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7198 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7199 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7202 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7203 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7204 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7206 to see a backtrace, and
7207 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7208 to see them by default.
7212 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7214 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7216 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7217 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7220 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7221 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7222 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7223 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7226 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7227 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7228 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7229 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7230 functions which inspired them.
7232 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7233 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7237 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7239 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7241 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7242 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7245 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7246 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7247 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7249 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7250 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7251 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7252 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7253 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7255 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7257 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7258 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7259 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7262 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7265 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7267 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7268 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7269 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7270 above should serve their purposes.
7272 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7273 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7274 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7275 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7277 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7280 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7281 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7282 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7283 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7285 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7286 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7287 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7288 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7290 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7291 for the `read' function.
7294 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7295 to that of `integer?'.
7297 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7298 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7300 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7301 it simply returns the object's property list.
7303 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7304 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7305 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7306 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7308 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7310 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7313 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7315 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7316 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7318 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7320 void (*main_func) (),
7323 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7324 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7325 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7326 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7327 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7329 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7330 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7331 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7332 know which arguments have been processed.
7334 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7335 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7336 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7337 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7338 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7340 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7341 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7342 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7343 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7344 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7345 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7346 people from making that mistake.
7348 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7349 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7351 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7353 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7357 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7360 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7361 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7362 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7363 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7366 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7367 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7368 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7369 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7372 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7373 have been added to the Guile library.
7375 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7376 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7377 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7380 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7381 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7382 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7384 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7385 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7386 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7387 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7388 argument from the list.
7391 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7394 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7395 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7397 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7398 to a Scheme port object.
7400 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7401 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7406 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7408 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7409 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7410 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7411 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7412 code as a special datatype.
7414 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7415 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7416 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7417 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7418 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7421 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7422 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7423 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7424 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7425 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7427 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7430 Copyright information:
7432 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7434 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7435 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7436 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7437 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7439 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7440 of this document, or of portions of it,
7441 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7442 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7447 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"