1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
13 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
15 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
16 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
17 open-output-string, get-output-string.
19 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
21 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
23 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
25 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
27 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
29 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
31 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
32 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
33 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
35 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
37 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
38 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
39 to be named `and-let*', of course.
41 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
42 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
44 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
49 (oop goops active-slot)
50 (oop goops composite-slot)
52 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
53 integrated into Guile.
57 (use-modules (oop goops))
59 access GOOPS bindings.
61 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
65 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
69 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
73 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
74 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
75 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
77 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
78 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
81 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
84 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
86 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
87 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
91 Asking for the type of an object
93 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
94 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
95 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
96 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
98 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
100 See further in the GOOPS manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory,
101 in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
103 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
105 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
106 in the default environment:
108 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
109 %read-line write-line
111 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
112 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
114 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
116 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
119 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
120 can be used for similar functionality.
122 ** New module (ice-9 match)
124 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
126 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
130 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
131 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
133 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
134 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
136 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
138 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
140 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
141 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
142 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
143 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
145 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
146 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
150 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
151 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
152 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
155 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
158 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
159 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
161 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
162 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
165 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
168 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
170 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
172 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
174 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
175 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
177 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
181 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
182 (define m (make-safe-module))
183 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
184 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
185 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
187 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
189 ** The empty combination is no longer valid syntax.
191 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
192 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
193 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
195 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
197 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
198 libraries to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
199 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
200 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
203 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported.
204 What you should do instead now is to write a small Scheme file that
205 explicitly calls `dynamic-link' to load the shared library and
206 `dynamic-call' to initialize it.
208 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
209 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
211 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
213 (define-module (foo bar))
215 (dynamic-call "foobar_init" (dynamic-link "libguile-foo-bar"))
217 The file name passed to `dynamic-link' should not contain an
218 extension. It will be provided automatically.
220 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
222 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
223 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
224 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
225 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
228 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
229 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
230 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
231 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
232 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
233 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
234 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
235 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
236 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
237 one eval to the next.
239 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
240 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
241 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
242 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
243 subforms are at the top-level as well.
245 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
246 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
247 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
248 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
249 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
250 used in a lexical environment.
252 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
254 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
255 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
256 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
258 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
260 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
261 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
262 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
264 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
265 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
266 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
267 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
269 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
271 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
272 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
274 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
275 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
276 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
277 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
278 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
281 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
282 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
283 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
284 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
285 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
286 successful and #f if it wasn't.
288 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
289 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
290 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
291 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
292 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
294 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
295 objects are usually permanent.
297 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
298 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
300 ** New function `call-with-deprecation'
302 Call a thunk, displaying a deprecation message at the first call:
305 (call-with-deprecation "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead."
310 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
315 ** New function `make-object-property'
317 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
318 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
322 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
323 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
327 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
328 source properties eventually.
330 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
332 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
333 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
334 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
336 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
337 will be removed in the next release.
339 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
341 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
342 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
344 (scheme-report-environment 5)
346 (interaction-environment)
352 ** New define-module option: pure
354 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
359 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
362 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
364 Export names NAME1 ...
366 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
367 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
373 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
376 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
381 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
383 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
385 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
386 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
388 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
390 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
393 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
395 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
397 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
399 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
400 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
401 large strings. It will:
403 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
404 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
405 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
407 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
409 * read any characters that are currently available, without
410 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
412 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
413 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
415 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
416 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
418 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
419 are immediately available.
421 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
424 ** New function: object->string OBJ
426 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
428 ** New function: port? X
430 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
431 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
433 ** New function: file-port?
435 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
437 ** New function: port-for-each proc
439 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
440 return value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied
441 exactly once to every port that exists in the system at the time
442 PORT-FOR-EACH is invoked. Changes to the port table while
443 PORT-FOR-EACH is running have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is
446 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
448 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
449 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
450 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
451 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
452 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
455 ** New function: close-fdes fd
457 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
458 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
459 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
460 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
463 ** New function: crypt password salt
465 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
468 ** New function: chroot path
470 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
472 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
474 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
477 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
479 Get or set the priority of the running process.
481 ** New function: getpass prompt
483 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
486 ** New function: flock file operation
488 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
490 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
492 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
495 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
497 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
498 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
499 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
500 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
501 of the temporary file.
503 ** New function: open-input-string string
505 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
506 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
507 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
509 ** New function: open-output-string
511 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
512 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
514 ** New function: get-output-string
516 Return the contents of an output string port.
518 ** New function: identity
522 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
523 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
525 ** New function: inet-pton family address
527 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note
528 that unlike the C version of this function, the result is an
529 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
531 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
532 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
534 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
536 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note
537 that unlike the C version of this function, the input is an
538 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
540 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
541 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
542 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
546 Use `identity' instead.
548 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
550 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
551 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
552 port-for-each is more flexible.
554 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
555 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
556 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
558 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
560 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
562 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
564 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
566 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
568 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
569 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
571 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
572 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
574 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
575 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
577 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
579 * Changes to the gh_ interface
581 * Changes to the scm_ interface
583 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
585 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
586 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
587 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
589 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
591 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
593 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
594 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
595 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
598 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
600 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
602 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
603 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
605 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
607 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
608 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
609 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
610 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
612 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
613 scm_primitive_property_ref
614 scm_primitive_property_set_x
615 scm_primitive_property_del_x
617 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
618 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
620 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
622 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
623 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
624 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
625 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
627 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
629 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
630 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
631 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
632 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
633 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
634 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
635 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
637 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
638 scm_remember_upto_here
640 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
642 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
644 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
645 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
647 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
649 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
651 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
653 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
655 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
657 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
658 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
659 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
660 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
661 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
662 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
664 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
666 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
668 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
669 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
670 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
672 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
674 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
675 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
676 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
678 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
680 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
681 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
684 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
687 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
688 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
691 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
693 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
695 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
697 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
699 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
701 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
703 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
704 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
705 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
706 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
707 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
708 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
709 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
710 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
711 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
712 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
713 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
714 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
715 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
716 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
717 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
719 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
720 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
721 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
722 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
723 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
724 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
725 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
726 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
727 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
728 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
729 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
730 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
731 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
732 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
733 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
734 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
735 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
736 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
737 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
738 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
739 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
740 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
741 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
742 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
743 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
744 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
745 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
746 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
747 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
749 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
751 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
753 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
754 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
756 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
758 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
760 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
762 Use scm_string_hash instead.
764 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
766 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
768 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
770 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
772 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
774 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
776 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
779 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
780 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
782 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
784 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
786 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
788 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
790 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
792 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
794 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
796 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
800 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
802 * Changes to the distribution
804 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
806 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
807 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
808 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
809 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
810 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
811 obtain these programs.
812 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
813 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
815 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
816 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
817 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
818 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
819 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
821 However, this approach means that minor differences between
822 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
823 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
824 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
828 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
831 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
832 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
833 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
834 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
836 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
838 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
840 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
841 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
843 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
844 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
846 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
847 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
849 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
850 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
851 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
852 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
854 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
856 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
860 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
861 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
863 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
865 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
866 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
868 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
869 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
870 number of objects of that kind.
872 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
874 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
875 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
876 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
877 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
878 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
880 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
882 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
884 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
886 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
889 ** New module (ice-9 time)
891 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
893 ** New module (ice-9 history)
895 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
897 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
899 ** New command line option --debug
901 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
903 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
907 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
908 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
909 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
910 (help) gives this text
912 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
913 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
915 Examples: (help help)
917 (help "output-string")
919 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
921 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
923 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
924 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
927 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
928 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
929 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
932 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
933 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
934 use absolute filenames when possible.
936 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
937 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
938 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
941 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
943 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
944 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
945 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
946 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
948 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
950 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
952 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
953 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
954 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
956 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
957 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
958 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
960 (read-enable 'positions)
961 (debug-enable 'debug)
963 ** Backtraces in scripts
965 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
969 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
971 at the top of the script.
973 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
974 The second enables backtraces.)
976 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
978 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
979 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
980 substantially faster than before.
982 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
983 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
985 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
986 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
988 ** gc-thunk is deprecated
990 gc-thunk will be removed in next release of Guile. It has been
991 replaced by after-gc-hook.
993 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
995 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
996 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
997 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
999 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1000 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1001 when this hook is run in the future.
1003 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1004 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1006 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1008 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1009 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1012 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1013 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1014 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1016 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1017 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1019 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1020 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1022 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1023 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1024 in order not to need further allocation.)
1026 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1029 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1030 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1031 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1032 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1034 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1036 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1039 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1041 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1044 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1045 GC in percent of total heap size
1048 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1049 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1051 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1053 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1054 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1056 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1058 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1059 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1061 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1063 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1064 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1068 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1069 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1071 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1073 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1075 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1077 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1079 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1081 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1082 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1084 (simple-format port message . args)
1085 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1086 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1087 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1088 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1089 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1090 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1091 Does not add a trailing newline."
1093 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1095 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1096 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1098 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1099 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1101 ** Deprecated: list*
1103 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1105 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1107 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1108 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1110 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1111 is returned as result.
1113 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1115 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1117 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1119 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1120 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1123 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1125 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1127 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1128 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1130 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1132 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1134 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1136 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1138 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1140 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1142 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1144 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1145 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1146 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1148 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1151 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1153 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1154 the readability of argument checking.
1156 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1158 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1160 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1162 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1163 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1164 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1165 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1166 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1167 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1168 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1170 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1172 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1174 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1175 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1177 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1179 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1180 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1183 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1185 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1186 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1187 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1189 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1190 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1191 implementation with gmp in the future.
1193 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1194 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1195 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1197 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1198 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1199 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1200 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1201 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1202 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1203 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1205 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1206 scm_end_input (object);
1207 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1208 ptob->flush (object);
1210 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1211 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1214 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1216 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1218 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1219 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1220 removed in a future version.
1222 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1224 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1225 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1226 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1227 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1229 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1230 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1232 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1235 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1237 in your configure.in.
1239 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1244 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1250 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1252 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1256 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1257 (define make-message string-append)
1259 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1261 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1265 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1270 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1274 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1276 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1277 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1279 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1281 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1282 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1283 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1284 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1285 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1286 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1288 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1289 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1290 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1292 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1293 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1294 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1297 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1298 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1299 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1300 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1301 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1303 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1304 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1305 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1306 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1307 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1308 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1309 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1311 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1313 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1314 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1315 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1317 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1318 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1319 KEY in the calling thread.
1321 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1322 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1323 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1324 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1325 associated with the key.
1327 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1329 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1330 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1332 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1334 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1335 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1336 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1338 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1340 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1341 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1343 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1345 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1347 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1348 returned is undefined.
1350 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1351 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1352 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1354 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1355 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1356 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1358 ** New C level GC hooks
1360 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1362 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1365 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1366 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1367 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1369 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1370 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1371 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1373 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1374 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1377 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1379 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1380 allocation parameters
1382 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1383 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1384 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1388 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1389 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1390 scm_default_max_segment_size
1392 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1394 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1395 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1397 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1399 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1400 object and count on the object being protected until
1401 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1403 The functions also have better time complexity.
1405 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1406 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1407 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1408 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1409 are no longer needed.
1411 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1413 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1414 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1415 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1416 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1418 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1420 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1422 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1424 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1425 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1426 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1427 until this issue has been settled.
1429 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1431 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1433 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1436 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1438 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1440 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1441 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1442 descriptors were checked.
1444 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1445 atomically written to a pipe.
1447 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1448 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1449 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1450 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1451 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1452 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1453 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1456 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1457 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1458 is changed without calling tzset.
1460 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1462 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1463 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1464 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1466 (define write-network-long
1467 (lambda (value port)
1468 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1469 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1470 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1472 (define read-network-long
1474 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1475 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1476 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1478 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1479 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1481 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1482 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1483 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1484 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1486 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1487 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1488 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1489 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1493 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1495 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1499 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1500 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1501 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1507 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1508 for a description of available commands.
1510 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1511 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1512 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1514 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1516 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1517 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1519 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1521 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1523 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1524 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1525 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1526 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1527 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1528 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1531 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1533 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1534 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1535 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1536 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1538 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1539 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1541 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1543 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1545 ** Readline support has changed again.
1547 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1548 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1549 to activate readline is now
1551 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1554 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1556 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1557 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1558 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1561 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1562 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1563 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1566 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1567 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1568 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1569 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1570 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1571 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1573 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1574 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1576 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1578 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1579 object it receives is the same string passed to
1580 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1581 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1582 string, not the suffix.
1584 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1585 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1586 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1588 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1590 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1591 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1592 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1593 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1596 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1598 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1600 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1601 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1602 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1603 appear from left to right.
1605 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1608 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1610 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1611 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1613 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1617 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1619 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1621 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1623 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1624 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1625 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1627 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1629 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1631 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1633 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1636 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1638 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1639 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1640 mentioning it here anyway.
1642 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1644 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1645 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1646 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1647 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1650 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1652 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1654 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1656 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1657 otherwise return #f.
1659 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1661 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1662 returned by `opendir'.
1664 ** New function: using-readline?
1666 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1668 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1670 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1671 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1673 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1675 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1677 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1678 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1679 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1681 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1683 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1684 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1686 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1688 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1689 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1690 documentation slots are not yet used.
1692 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1694 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1695 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1696 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1701 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1702 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1703 (string-append x y))
1705 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1706 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1708 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1709 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1710 be made in a clean way.]
1712 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1714 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1716 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1718 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1719 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1721 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1723 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1725 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1727 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1729 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1730 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1731 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1732 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1735 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1737 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1739 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1741 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1743 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1744 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1746 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1748 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1750 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1752 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1754 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1755 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1756 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1757 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1758 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1759 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1761 This should not make any difference for most users.
1763 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1765 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1766 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1768 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1770 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1771 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1772 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1773 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1774 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1776 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1778 It is now replaced by:
1780 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1782 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1783 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1785 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1787 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1788 This might change when we get the new module system.
1790 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1794 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1796 * Changes to mailing lists
1798 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1800 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1803 * Changes to the distribution
1805 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1807 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1808 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1809 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1810 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1811 you explicitly specify it.
1813 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1814 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1815 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1816 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1817 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1820 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1821 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1822 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1823 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1825 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1826 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1827 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1830 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1832 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1835 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1837 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1839 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1840 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1841 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1842 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1844 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1845 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1848 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1850 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
1851 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
1852 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
1853 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
1854 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
1855 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
1856 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
1857 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
1869 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
1870 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
1871 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
1872 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
1873 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
1878 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
1879 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
1887 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
1892 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
1893 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
1896 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
1897 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
1898 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
1899 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
1901 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
1903 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
1905 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
1906 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
1908 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
1910 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
1912 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
1913 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
1915 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
1918 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
1920 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
1922 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
1924 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
1926 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
1928 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
1930 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
1931 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
1932 when the hook was created.
1934 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
1935 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
1936 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
1937 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
1938 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
1939 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
1940 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
1941 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
1942 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
1944 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
1945 the dlopen family of functions.
1947 ** New function `provided?'
1949 - Function: provided? FEATURE
1950 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
1951 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
1952 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
1954 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
1956 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
1957 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
1958 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
1959 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1962 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1963 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
1964 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
1965 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
1967 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
1968 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
1969 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
1972 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
1973 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
1974 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
1975 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
1976 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
1977 but with the flag set.
1979 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
1981 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
1982 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
1984 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
1985 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
1986 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
1987 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
1988 available Scheme format implementations.
1990 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
1991 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
1992 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
1993 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
1994 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
1995 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
1996 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
1997 output is to the current error port if available by the
1998 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2001 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2002 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2003 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2004 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2005 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2006 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2007 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2008 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2010 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2011 be executed at a time.
2014 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2016 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2017 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2018 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2020 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2021 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2022 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2023 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2024 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2025 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2026 general form of a directive is:
2028 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2030 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2032 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2034 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2035 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2036 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2039 Any (print as `display' does).
2043 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2047 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2051 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2057 print number sign always.
2060 print comma separated.
2062 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2068 print number sign always.
2071 print comma separated.
2073 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2079 print number sign always.
2082 print comma separated.
2084 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2090 print number sign always.
2093 print comma separated.
2095 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2100 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2104 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2107 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2110 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2113 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2118 prints `y' and `ies'.
2121 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2124 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2129 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2133 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2136 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2137 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2139 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2142 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2143 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2145 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2148 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2150 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2152 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2155 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2157 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2159 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2162 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2165 The sign appears before the padding.
2173 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2175 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2180 print N page separators.
2190 newline is ignored, white space left.
2193 newline is left, white space ignored.
2198 relative tabulation.
2204 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2206 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2209 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2211 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2214 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2217 converts by `string-upcase'.
2220 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2222 jumps N arguments forward.
2225 jumps 1 argument backward.
2228 jumps N arguments backward.
2231 jumps to the 0th argument.
2234 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2236 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2237 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2239 take argument from N.
2242 true test conditional.
2245 if-else-then conditional.
2251 default clause follows.
2254 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2256 at most N iterations.
2259 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2262 args from the rest of arguments.
2265 args from the rest args (lists).
2276 aborts if N <= M <= K
2278 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2281 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2284 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2290 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2292 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2294 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2295 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2296 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2297 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2298 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2299 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2303 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2307 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2313 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2316 Print a `#\space' character
2318 print N `#\space' characters.
2321 Print a `#\tab' character
2323 print N `#\tab' characters.
2326 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2327 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2328 must be a positive decimal number.
2331 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2332 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2333 be processed by `read'.
2336 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2337 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2338 be processed by `read'.
2341 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2344 prints format version.
2347 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2348 and format it accordingly.
2350 *** Configuration Variables
2352 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2353 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2354 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2355 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2358 format:symbol-case-conv
2359 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2360 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2361 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2362 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2363 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2365 format:iobj-case-conv
2366 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2367 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2370 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2373 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2379 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2380 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2381 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2382 `format' padding style.
2385 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2386 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2387 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2388 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2392 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2393 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2394 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2397 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2398 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2399 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2400 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2401 parameters or modifiers)).
2404 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2406 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2408 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2409 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2411 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2412 string-downcase! functions.
2414 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2415 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2417 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2420 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2423 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2424 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2426 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2428 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2429 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2431 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2432 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2433 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2434 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2435 would if STRING were input.
2437 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2439 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2440 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2441 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2442 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2445 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2447 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2448 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2451 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2453 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2454 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2456 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2457 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2459 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2460 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2461 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2462 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2464 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2465 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2467 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2468 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2469 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2471 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2472 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2474 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2475 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2476 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2477 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2478 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2480 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2481 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2482 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2483 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2484 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2485 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2487 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2488 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2489 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2492 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2493 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2494 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2495 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2496 the following grammar:
2497 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2498 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2499 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2500 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2501 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2502 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2503 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2504 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2505 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2506 last option in its combination)
2508 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2509 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2510 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2511 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2513 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2514 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2515 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2517 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2518 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2519 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2521 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2522 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2523 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2524 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2525 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2526 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2527 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2528 ordinary argument strings.
2530 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2531 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2532 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2533 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2535 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2536 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2538 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2539 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2540 - a required option is omitted
2541 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2542 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2543 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2544 - an option predicate fails
2549 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2552 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2553 (verbose (required? #f)
2556 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2557 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2558 (predicate ,string?))))
2560 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2561 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2563 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2564 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2565 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2566 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2569 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2571 It will be removed in a few releases.
2573 ** New syntax: lambda*
2574 ** New syntax: define*
2575 ** New syntax: define*-public
2576 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2577 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2578 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2580 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2581 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2582 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2583 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2584 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2586 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2587 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2588 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2590 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2592 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2593 and examples for `lambda*':
2596 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2598 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2599 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2600 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2601 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2602 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2603 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2604 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2605 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2607 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2609 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2610 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2611 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2612 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2614 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2615 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2616 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2617 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2618 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2619 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2620 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2621 and until the procedure is called.
2623 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2625 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2626 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2627 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2628 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2629 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2630 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2631 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2632 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2633 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2634 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2636 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2637 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2638 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2639 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2642 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2644 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2645 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2646 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2647 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2649 ** New syntax: and-let*
2650 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2652 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2653 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2654 (<variable> <expression>)
2657 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2658 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2659 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2662 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2663 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2664 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2665 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2666 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2667 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2668 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2670 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2671 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2672 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2673 shadow earlier bindings.
2675 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2677 ** New sorting functions
2679 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2680 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2681 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2682 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2684 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2685 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2688 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2689 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2690 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2692 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2693 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2694 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2695 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2697 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2698 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2699 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2700 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2701 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2704 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2705 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2706 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2707 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2708 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2709 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2711 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2712 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2713 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2715 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2716 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2717 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2720 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2721 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2722 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2724 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2725 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2727 ** New built-in random number support
2729 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2730 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2731 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2732 returned have a uniform distribution.
2734 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2735 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2736 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2737 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2738 effect of the `random' operation.
2740 *** New variable: *random-state*
2741 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2742 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2743 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2744 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2745 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2748 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2749 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2750 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2751 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2752 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2754 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2755 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2756 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2757 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2758 initialized using SEED.
2760 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2761 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2762 range between 0 and 1.
2764 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2765 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2766 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2767 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2768 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2769 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2770 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2772 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2773 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2774 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2775 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2776 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2777 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2779 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2780 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2781 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2782 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2784 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2785 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2786 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2787 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2789 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2790 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2791 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2793 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2795 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2798 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2799 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2802 ** New function: make-guardian
2803 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2804 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2805 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2806 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2807 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2809 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2810 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2811 one object if at all.
2813 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2814 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2815 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2817 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2818 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2819 read again in last-in first-out order.
2821 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2822 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2824 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2826 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2827 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2828 file position is used.
2830 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2831 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2832 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2834 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2835 redefined using seek.
2837 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2838 size is not supplied.
2840 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2841 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2843 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2844 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2846 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2848 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2849 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2850 and returns the contents as a single string.
2852 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
2853 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
2854 lists in serial order.
2856 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
2857 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
2858 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
2860 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
2861 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
2862 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
2863 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
2865 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
2866 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
2867 and #f if an error occured.
2869 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
2871 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
2872 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
2873 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
2874 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
2876 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
2878 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
2881 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
2883 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
2886 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2890 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
2891 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
2893 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
2894 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
2898 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2900 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
2902 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2903 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2905 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2907 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
2908 might change when we get the new module system.
2910 ** The smob interface
2912 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
2913 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
2915 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
2917 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
2921 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
2922 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
2923 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
2924 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
2925 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
2926 will be freed by the default free function.
2928 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2929 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
2930 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2931 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2933 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2934 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
2935 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2936 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2938 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
2940 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
2941 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
2945 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
2946 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2947 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2949 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
2950 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
2951 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2952 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2954 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
2955 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
2956 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
2958 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
2959 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
2960 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
2961 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
2963 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
2964 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
2965 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
2967 *** scm_newptob has been removed
2971 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
2973 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
2974 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
2975 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
2977 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
2978 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
2979 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
2981 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
2982 a string port's buffer.
2984 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
2985 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
2986 function pointers which together define the current random number
2987 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
2988 number library functions.
2990 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
2993 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
2994 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
2997 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
2998 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3000 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3001 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3003 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3004 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3007 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3008 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3009 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3010 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3012 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3013 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3014 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3015 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3016 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3017 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3018 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3020 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3021 by libguile and the application.
3023 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3024 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3025 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3026 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3028 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3029 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3031 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3032 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3033 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3035 ** Random number library functions
3036 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3037 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3038 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3040 The default random state is stored in:
3042 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3043 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3044 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3049 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3051 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3052 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3053 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3054 isn't a random state.
3056 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3057 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3059 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3060 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3061 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3062 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3064 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3065 Return 32 random bits.
3067 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3068 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3070 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3071 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3073 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3074 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3076 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3077 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3079 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3080 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3081 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3085 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3087 * Changes to the distribution
3089 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3090 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3091 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3094 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3095 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3096 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3098 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3099 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3100 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3101 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3104 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3105 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3106 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3108 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3110 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3112 *** Function: batch-mode?
3114 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3117 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3119 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3120 case has not been implemented.
3122 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3123 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3124 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3127 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3128 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3130 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3132 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3134 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3136 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3137 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3140 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3141 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3142 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3143 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3146 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3148 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3149 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3150 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3151 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3152 find those libraries.
3154 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3155 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3158 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3160 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3161 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3162 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3163 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3165 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3166 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3167 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3171 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3173 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3174 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3175 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3178 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3179 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3180 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3181 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3183 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3184 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3187 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3188 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3189 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3190 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3191 compiler where to find the libraries.
3193 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3194 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3195 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3197 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3198 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3199 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3200 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3201 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3205 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3207 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3208 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3209 internationalization support.
3211 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3212 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3213 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3214 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3215 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3217 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3218 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3219 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3220 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3221 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3223 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3224 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3225 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3226 any GNU mirror site.
3228 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3230 ** New function: add-history STRING
3231 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3232 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3233 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3235 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3237 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3238 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3239 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3242 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3243 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3244 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3246 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3248 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3251 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3252 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3255 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3256 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3257 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3258 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3259 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3260 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3262 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3263 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3264 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3265 of the form mentioned above.
3267 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3268 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3269 returned in the special `rest' list.
3271 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3272 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3274 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3276 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3278 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3280 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3281 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3282 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3283 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3284 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3285 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3286 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3287 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3290 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3292 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3294 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3295 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3298 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3299 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3300 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3304 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3305 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3306 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3307 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3308 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3309 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3310 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3311 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3314 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3316 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3317 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3318 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3320 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3322 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3323 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3325 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3326 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3327 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3329 Why do we have this function?
3330 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3331 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3332 primitive, and display it differently, and
3333 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3334 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3337 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3338 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3341 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3342 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3343 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3344 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3346 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3347 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3350 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3351 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3353 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3355 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3356 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3357 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3358 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3359 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3360 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3361 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3364 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3366 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3367 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3369 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3370 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3371 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3372 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3373 properly continue the print chain.
3375 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3376 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3377 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3378 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3379 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3380 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3381 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3382 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3384 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3385 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3386 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3387 safest to not check for these pairs.
3389 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3390 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3391 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3392 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3394 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3396 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3397 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3399 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3401 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3403 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3404 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3405 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3407 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3408 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3409 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3411 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3412 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3413 the following functions and macros:
3415 Function: make-fluid
3417 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3418 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3419 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3420 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3421 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3423 Function: fluid? OBJ
3425 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3427 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3428 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3430 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3431 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3433 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3435 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3436 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3437 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3438 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3439 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3440 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3441 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3443 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3445 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3446 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3447 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3448 should evaluate to a fluid.
3450 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3452 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3453 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3454 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3455 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3456 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3458 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3461 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3463 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3465 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3467 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3470 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3471 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3472 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3473 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3474 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3477 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3478 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3479 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3481 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3482 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3483 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3485 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3486 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3487 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3488 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3490 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3491 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3492 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3493 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3495 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3496 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3497 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3498 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3500 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3501 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3502 their revealed counts set to zero.
3504 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3505 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3507 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3508 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3510 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3511 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3513 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3514 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3515 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3517 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3518 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3519 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3521 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3522 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3523 default environment inherited by child processes.
3525 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3526 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3527 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3529 The return value is unspecified.
3531 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3532 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3533 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3534 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3535 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3537 The return value is unspecified.
3539 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3540 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3548 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3549 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3552 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3555 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3556 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3557 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3559 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3560 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3561 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3562 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3565 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3566 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3568 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3569 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3570 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3571 the `environ' procedure.
3573 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3574 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3577 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3578 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3580 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3581 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3582 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3583 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3585 *** procedure: times
3586 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3587 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3588 return a selected component:
3591 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3595 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3598 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3602 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3603 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3607 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3608 terminated child processes.
3610 ** Removed: list-length
3611 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3612 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3614 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3616 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3618 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3620 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3621 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3622 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3623 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3625 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3626 extra complexity it introduces.
3628 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3629 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3631 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3632 variable to any non-empty value.
3634 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3635 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3637 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3639 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3640 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3642 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3644 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3645 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3647 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3649 ** vector handling routines
3651 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3652 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3653 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3654 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3655 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3657 ** pair and list routines
3659 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3662 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3664 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3667 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3669 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3671 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3672 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3673 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3674 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3675 site-specific initialization code.
3677 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3678 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3679 initialization processes.
3681 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3682 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3683 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3684 initialized properly.
3686 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3687 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3688 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3690 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3691 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3692 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3693 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3694 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3696 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3698 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3699 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3700 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3701 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3702 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3704 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3705 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3706 which look like this:
3709 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3711 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3712 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3715 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3716 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3719 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3721 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3722 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3723 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3725 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3726 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3727 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3728 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3729 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3731 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3732 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3734 int (*free) (SCM port);
3735 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3736 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3737 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3741 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3742 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3743 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3745 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3748 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3749 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3750 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3752 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3753 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3754 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3757 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3761 struct timeval *timeout);
3763 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3764 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3765 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3766 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3767 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3768 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3770 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3771 scm_catch_body_t body,
3773 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3776 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3777 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3778 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3779 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3780 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3781 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3783 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3785 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3788 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3789 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3790 spawning threads from application C code.
3792 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3793 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3794 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3795 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3796 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3797 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3799 ** Removed functions:
3801 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3802 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3804 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3806 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3807 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3809 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3811 ** mbstrings are now removed
3813 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3814 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3816 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3818 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3819 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3820 their new names and arguments:
3822 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3823 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3824 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3825 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3828 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3830 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3832 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3835 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3837 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3838 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3839 pass a #f arg to catch.
3841 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3843 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3844 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3847 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3848 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3849 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3850 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
3851 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
3852 reclaim its storage.
3854 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
3855 worrying that some other function you call will call
3856 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
3857 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
3858 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
3859 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
3862 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
3864 * Changes to the distribution
3866 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
3867 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
3870 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
3871 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
3873 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3874 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3876 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
3878 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
3879 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
3880 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
3882 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3884 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
3885 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
3886 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
3887 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
3888 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
3889 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
3891 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
3892 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
3893 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
3896 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
3897 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
3898 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
3899 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
3901 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
3902 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
3903 libraries to your link command:
3905 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
3906 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
3907 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
3908 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
3910 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
3911 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
3912 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
3914 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3916 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
3917 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
3920 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
3922 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
3923 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
3924 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
3925 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
3926 searched is system dependent.
3928 (dynamic-object? VAL)
3930 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
3932 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
3934 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
3935 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
3937 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3939 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
3940 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
3941 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
3942 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
3943 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
3946 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3948 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
3949 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
3950 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
3951 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
3952 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
3954 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
3956 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
3957 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
3959 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
3961 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
3962 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
3963 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
3966 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
3968 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
3969 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
3970 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
3971 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
3973 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
3974 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
3976 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
3978 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
3979 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
3981 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
3983 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
3984 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
3992 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
3994 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
3995 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
3996 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
3997 a more informative way.
3999 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4000 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4001 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4002 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4003 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4004 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4006 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4007 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4010 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4011 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4012 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4015 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4016 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4017 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4018 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4019 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4020 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4022 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4023 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4024 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4025 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4028 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4029 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4030 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4031 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4032 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4033 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4035 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4036 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4037 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4038 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4039 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4041 *** regexp functions
4043 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4044 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4045 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4047 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4048 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4049 with SCSH regular expressions.
4051 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4052 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4053 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4054 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4056 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4057 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4058 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4059 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4061 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4062 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4063 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4064 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4065 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4066 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4068 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4069 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4070 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4071 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4072 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4074 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4076 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4077 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4078 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4079 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4081 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4082 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4083 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4085 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4086 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4088 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4091 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4092 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4093 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4095 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4096 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4097 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4099 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4100 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4101 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4102 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4103 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4106 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4108 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4109 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4110 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4111 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4112 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4113 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4115 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4116 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4117 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4119 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4120 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4123 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4124 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4126 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4127 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4128 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4129 may be one of the following arguments:
4131 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4133 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4135 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4136 the regexp match is written.
4138 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4139 following the regexp match is written.
4141 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4142 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4145 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4146 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4147 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4148 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4149 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4150 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4152 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4155 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4156 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4157 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4158 written out to PORT.
4160 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4161 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4162 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4163 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4164 will return after processing a single match.
4166 *** Match Structures
4168 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4169 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4170 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4171 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4172 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4173 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4176 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4177 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4178 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4179 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4180 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4182 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4183 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4184 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4186 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4187 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4188 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4189 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4190 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4192 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4193 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4195 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4196 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4198 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4199 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4201 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4202 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4204 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4205 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4206 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4207 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4209 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4210 Return the original TARGET string.
4212 *** Backslash Escapes
4214 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4215 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4216 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4217 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4218 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4219 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4221 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4222 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4223 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4224 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4225 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4226 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4227 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4228 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4230 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4231 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4232 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4233 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4234 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4235 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4236 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4238 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4239 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4240 return the resulting string.
4242 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4243 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4244 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4245 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4246 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4247 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4248 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4249 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4250 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4251 translated to the single character `*'.
4253 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4254 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4255 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4256 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4257 consecutive backslashes:
4259 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4261 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4262 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4263 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4265 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4266 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4267 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4268 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4269 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4270 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4272 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4274 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4275 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4276 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4277 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4278 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4279 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4280 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4281 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4282 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4283 cumbersome escape syntax.
4285 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4287 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4289 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4291 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4294 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4296 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4298 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4301 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4302 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4303 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4304 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4305 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4307 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4308 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4309 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4310 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4311 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4312 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4313 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4316 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4317 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4318 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4321 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4322 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4324 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4325 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4326 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4327 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4328 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4329 installed, you can say:
4331 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4334 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4336 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4337 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4338 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4339 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4340 new dynamic roots and threads.
4343 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4345 * Changes to the distribution.
4347 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4349 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4350 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4351 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4352 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4353 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4354 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4355 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4356 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4358 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4361 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4362 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4367 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4369 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4370 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4372 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4373 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4374 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4375 the (command-line) function.
4376 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4377 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4378 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4380 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4381 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4382 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4383 command line arguments
4384 -ds do -s script at this point
4385 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4386 -h, --help display this help and exit
4387 -v, --version display version information and exit
4388 \ read arguments from following script lines
4390 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4391 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4393 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4396 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4400 (main (command-line))
4402 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4404 ekko a speckled gecko
4406 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4407 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4408 following list of command-line arguments:
4410 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4412 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4413 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4414 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4415 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4416 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4418 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4420 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4422 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4423 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4426 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4427 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4428 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4429 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4431 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4432 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4433 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4434 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4436 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4440 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4444 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4446 ekko a speckled gecko
4448 Unix expands this into
4450 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4452 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4453 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4455 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4457 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4458 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4460 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4461 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4462 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4463 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4464 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4465 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4466 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4467 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4468 it only terminates the argument list.)
4469 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4470 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4471 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4472 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4473 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4474 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4475 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4476 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4478 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4480 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4481 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4482 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4483 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4484 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4486 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4487 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4488 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4490 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4492 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4493 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4494 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4495 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4498 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4499 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4500 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4502 * Changes to Scheme functions
4504 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4505 and disabled by default.
4507 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4508 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4509 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4510 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4512 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4514 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4516 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4517 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4519 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4520 (read-set! keywords #f)
4522 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4523 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4524 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4527 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4528 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4529 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4532 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4533 support for Scheme functions.
4535 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4536 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4537 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4538 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4541 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4542 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4543 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4546 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4547 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4548 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4551 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4552 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4553 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4554 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4555 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4556 display the result as a prompt.
4557 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4559 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4560 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4561 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4564 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4565 procedure of zero arguments.
4567 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4568 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4569 argument is bound in the current module.
4571 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4572 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4573 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4574 public bindings into the current module.
4576 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4577 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4579 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4580 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4582 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4583 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4585 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4586 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4588 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4589 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4591 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4592 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4593 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4594 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4595 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4597 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4598 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4599 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4600 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4602 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4605 ** Changes to I/O functions
4607 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4608 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4609 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4611 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4612 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4613 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4615 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4616 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4618 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4619 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4620 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4621 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4623 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4625 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4626 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4628 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4629 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4630 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4631 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4632 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4635 'trim omit delimiter from result
4636 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4637 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4638 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4640 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4642 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4643 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4645 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4646 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4647 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4648 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4649 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4651 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4652 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4653 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4655 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4656 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4657 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4658 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4660 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4661 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4663 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4664 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4666 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4668 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4669 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4670 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4671 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4672 a delimiting character.
4673 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4675 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4676 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4677 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4678 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4679 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4680 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4682 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4683 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4685 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4686 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4687 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4689 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4690 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4691 the array to read and write.
4693 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4694 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4697 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4699 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4702 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4703 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4704 Values for COMMAND are:
4706 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4707 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4708 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4709 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4710 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4711 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4712 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4713 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4715 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4717 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4718 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4719 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4720 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4721 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4722 corresponding return set will be the same.
4724 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4727 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4728 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4729 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4730 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4731 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4732 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4733 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4734 special file being created.
4736 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4737 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4739 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4740 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4741 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4742 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4743 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4744 and originating address.
4746 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4747 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4748 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4750 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4753 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4754 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4757 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4758 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4759 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4760 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4761 this function returns #f.
4763 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4764 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4765 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4768 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4769 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4770 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4773 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4774 a valid STATUS value.
4776 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4778 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4779 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4781 Component Accessor Setter
4782 ========================= ============ ============
4783 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4784 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4785 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4786 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4787 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4788 year tm:year set-tm:year
4789 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4790 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4791 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4792 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4793 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4795 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4796 describing the host system:
4799 ============================================== ================
4800 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4801 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4802 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4803 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4804 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4806 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4807 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4808 system's user database:
4811 ====================== =================
4812 user name passwd:name
4813 user password passwd:passwd
4816 real name passwd:gecos
4817 home directory passwd:dir
4818 shell program passwd:shell
4820 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4821 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4822 system's group database:
4825 ======================= ============
4826 group name group:name
4827 group password group:passwd
4829 group members group:mem
4831 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4832 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4836 ========================= ===============
4837 official name of host hostent:name
4838 alias list hostent:aliases
4839 host address type hostent:addrtype
4840 length of address hostent:length
4841 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4843 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4844 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4848 ========================= ===============
4849 official name of net netent:name
4850 alias list netent:aliases
4851 net number type netent:addrtype
4852 net number netent:net
4854 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
4855 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
4859 ========================= ===============
4860 official protocol name protoent:name
4861 alias list protoent:aliases
4862 protocol number protoent:proto
4864 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
4865 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
4869 ========================= ===============
4870 official service name servent:name
4871 alias list servent:aliases
4872 port number servent:port
4873 protocol to use servent:proto
4875 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
4876 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
4879 ======================================== ===============
4880 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
4881 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
4882 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
4883 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
4885 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
4886 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
4887 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
4889 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
4890 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
4892 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
4893 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
4895 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
4896 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
4898 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
4900 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
4902 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
4903 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
4904 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
4906 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
4907 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
4908 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
4909 return the remaining characters as a string.
4911 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
4912 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
4913 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
4915 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
4917 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4919 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
4922 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
4925 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
4926 and returns the array
4928 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
4929 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
4930 the user to interpret the data both ways.
4932 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4934 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
4935 symbol's value from C code:
4937 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
4938 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
4939 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
4940 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
4942 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
4943 without assigning them a value.
4945 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
4946 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
4947 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
4949 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
4950 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
4951 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
4953 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
4954 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
4956 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
4957 doesn't actually care about that.
4959 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
4960 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
4961 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
4963 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
4964 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
4965 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
4966 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
4967 which we have just created and initialized.
4969 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
4970 should one occur. We call it like this:
4971 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
4973 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
4974 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
4975 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
4976 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
4977 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
4978 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
4981 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
4982 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
4983 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
4984 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
4985 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
4986 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
4987 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
4990 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
4991 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
4992 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
4993 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
4994 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
4997 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
4998 scm_internal_catch, except:
5000 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5001 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5002 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5003 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5006 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5007 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5008 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5010 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5011 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5012 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5013 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5016 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5017 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5018 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5020 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5021 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5022 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5023 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5024 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5026 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5027 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5028 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5030 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5031 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5032 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5034 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5035 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5037 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5038 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5039 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5042 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5043 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5044 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5045 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5046 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5047 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5048 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5051 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5052 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5054 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5055 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5056 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5057 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5058 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5061 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5062 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5064 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5065 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5068 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5069 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5071 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5074 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5075 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5076 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5077 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5078 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5079 given the following arguments:
5081 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5083 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5085 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5087 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5090 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5091 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5092 command-line arguments.
5094 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5095 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5096 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5097 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5098 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5099 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5102 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5105 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5106 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5108 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5109 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5111 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5112 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5113 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5114 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5116 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5117 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5119 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5120 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5121 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5122 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5124 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5125 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5127 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5128 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5130 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5132 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5133 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5134 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5137 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5138 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5140 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5141 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5146 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5149 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5151 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5152 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5153 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5154 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5156 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5158 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5160 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5161 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5162 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5163 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5164 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5165 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5166 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5167 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5168 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5169 for more information.
5171 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5172 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5174 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5175 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5176 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5177 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5178 following two lines at the top of the file:
5180 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5183 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5184 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5185 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5187 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5189 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5191 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5194 (display (car args))
5195 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5197 (loop (cdr args)))))
5200 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5201 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5202 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5203 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5204 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5205 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5209 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5212 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5215 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5217 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5218 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5219 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5220 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5221 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5224 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5225 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5226 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5227 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5228 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5231 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5234 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5235 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5236 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5239 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5240 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5241 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5243 to see a backtrace, and
5244 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5245 to see them by default.
5249 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5251 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5253 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5254 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5257 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5258 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5259 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5260 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5263 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5264 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5265 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5266 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5267 functions which inspired them.
5269 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5270 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5274 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5276 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5278 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5279 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5282 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5283 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5284 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5286 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5287 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5288 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5289 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5290 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5292 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5294 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5295 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5296 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5299 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5302 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5304 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5305 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5306 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5307 above should serve their purposes.
5309 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5310 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5311 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5312 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5314 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5317 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5318 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5319 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5320 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5322 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5323 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5324 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5325 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5327 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5328 for the `read' function.
5331 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5332 to that of `integer?'.
5334 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5335 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5337 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5338 it simply returns the object's property list.
5340 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5341 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5342 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5343 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5345 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5347 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5350 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5352 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5353 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5355 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5357 void (*main_func) (),
5360 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5361 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5362 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5363 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5364 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5366 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5367 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5368 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5369 know which arguments have been processed.
5371 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5372 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5373 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5374 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5375 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5377 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5378 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5379 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5380 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5381 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5382 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5383 people from making that mistake.
5385 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5386 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5388 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5390 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5394 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5397 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5398 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5399 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5400 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5403 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5404 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5405 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5406 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5409 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5410 have been added to the Guile library.
5412 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5413 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5414 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5417 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5418 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5419 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5421 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5422 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5423 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5424 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5425 argument from the list.
5428 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5431 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5432 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5434 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5435 to a Scheme port object.
5437 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5438 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5443 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5445 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5446 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5447 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5448 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5449 code as a special datatype.
5451 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5452 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5453 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5454 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5455 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5458 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5459 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5460 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5461 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5462 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5464 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5467 Copyright information:
5469 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5471 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5472 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5473 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5474 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5476 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5477 of this document, or of portions of it,
5478 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5479 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5484 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"