1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
10 * New modules (see the manual for details)
12 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
13 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
15 * Changes to the distribution
17 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
19 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
20 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
22 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
23 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
25 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
26 This slightly improves program startup times.
28 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
29 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
31 * Changes to the C interface
33 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
44 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
48 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
49 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
50 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
51 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
53 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
55 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
56 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
57 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
61 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
63 * New features (see the manual for details)
65 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
67 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
69 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
70 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
71 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
73 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
75 * Changes to the distribution
77 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
79 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
80 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
82 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
84 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
85 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
90 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
91 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
92 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
93 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
94 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
95 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
96 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
97 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
98 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
99 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
100 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
101 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
102 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
103 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
105 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
106 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
107 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
108 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
109 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
112 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
114 * Infrastructure changes
116 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
118 The new repository can be accessed using
119 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
120 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
122 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
124 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
126 * New modules (see the manual for details)
130 * New features (see the manual for details)
132 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
133 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
134 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
136 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
137 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
138 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
139 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
141 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
143 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
144 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
145 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
149 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
150 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
152 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
153 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
155 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
156 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
158 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
159 lead to a stack overflow.
161 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
162 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
163 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
164 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
165 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
166 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
167 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
168 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
169 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
170 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
171 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
172 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
173 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
174 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
175 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
176 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
178 * Changes to the distribution
182 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
183 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
186 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
190 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
191 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
192 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
193 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
194 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
195 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
196 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
197 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
198 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
199 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
200 system and library calls.
201 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
202 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
203 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
204 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
205 uniform vectors on AIX.
206 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
207 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
208 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
209 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
210 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
212 * New modules (see the manual for details)
216 * Documentation fixes and improvements
218 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
220 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
221 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
223 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
225 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
227 * Changes to the distribution
229 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
231 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
232 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
233 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
235 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
237 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
240 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
242 * New modules (see the manual for details)
249 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
250 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
251 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
252 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
253 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
254 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
255 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
257 * Implementation improvements
259 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
260 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
263 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
265 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
267 ** set-program-arguments
270 * Incompatible changes
272 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
274 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
275 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
276 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
277 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
282 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
283 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
284 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
285 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
286 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
287 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
289 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
290 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
291 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
292 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
293 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
294 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
295 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
296 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
297 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
298 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
299 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
300 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
301 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
302 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
303 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
304 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
307 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
309 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
311 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
313 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
314 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
315 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
316 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
317 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
318 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
326 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
328 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
330 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
332 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
334 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
336 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
338 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
339 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
340 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
342 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
344 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
346 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
347 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
349 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
351 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
352 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
354 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
356 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
358 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
360 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
362 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
364 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
366 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
368 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
370 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
372 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
373 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
374 file was on a different device.
377 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
379 * Changes to the distribution
381 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
383 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
385 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
387 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
389 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
391 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
394 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
396 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
397 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
398 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
399 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
400 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
401 items like the versioned share directory name
402 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
404 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
405 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
406 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
407 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
408 with each micro release during a stable series.
410 ** Thread implementation has changed.
412 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
413 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
414 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
415 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
416 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
419 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
420 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
421 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
422 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
425 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
426 in which case "null" threads are used.
428 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
429 "Blocking", and others.
431 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
433 This is a milder form of deprecation.
435 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
436 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
437 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
438 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
439 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
441 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
442 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
444 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
446 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
447 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
449 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
452 This SRFI is always available.
454 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
456 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
457 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
458 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
459 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
462 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
464 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
465 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
466 parameters without currying.
468 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
470 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
471 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
473 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
474 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
477 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
478 with a renaming import, for example.
480 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
482 The official version is good enough now.
484 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
486 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
487 provided. Use 'make html'.
489 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
491 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
492 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
493 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
494 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
496 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
498 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
501 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
503 ** New command line option `-L'.
505 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
507 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
509 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
510 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
512 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
514 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
515 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
517 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
519 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
520 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
523 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
526 (define-module (demo)
530 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
533 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
535 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
537 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
538 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
539 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
541 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
543 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
544 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
546 ** New function hashx-remove!
548 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
550 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
551 barriers and dynamic states.
553 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
554 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
555 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
558 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
559 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
560 Barriers" in the manual.
562 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
563 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
565 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
567 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
568 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
569 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
572 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
574 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
575 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
577 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
578 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
579 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
581 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
582 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
584 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
585 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
586 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
588 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
589 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
590 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
593 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
594 substrings and read-only strings.
596 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
597 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
600 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
602 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
611 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
612 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
613 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
615 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
616 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
617 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
620 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
621 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
624 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
626 See the manual for details.
628 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
630 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
633 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
635 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
636 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
637 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
638 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
640 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
641 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
642 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
645 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
647 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
648 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
659 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
663 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
668 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
672 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
676 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
679 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
680 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
681 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
682 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
684 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
685 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
688 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
691 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
695 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
697 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
698 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
699 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
702 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
705 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
707 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
710 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
711 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
719 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
720 has been detected is to
722 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
723 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
724 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
727 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
730 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
732 to your .guile init file.
734 ** New define-module option: :replace
736 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
739 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
740 for the core binding `format'.
742 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
744 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
745 a prefix to all imported bindings.
748 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
750 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
753 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
755 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
756 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
757 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
759 ** New function: effective-version
761 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
762 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
763 to the distribution" above.
765 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
767 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
768 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
770 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
772 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
773 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
775 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
777 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
778 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
781 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
783 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
785 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
787 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
788 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
789 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
792 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
793 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
794 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
797 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
798 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
800 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
801 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
802 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
805 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
807 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
808 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
811 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
812 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
814 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
815 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
816 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
817 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
818 level for the current thread.
820 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
822 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
824 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
825 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
828 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
830 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
832 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
835 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
837 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
840 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
841 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
842 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
844 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
845 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
846 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
847 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
858 ERROR: Numerical overflow
860 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
863 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
865 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
866 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
867 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
878 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
880 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
881 them is also done exactly, of course:
886 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
889 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
890 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
892 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
894 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
895 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
896 equal to a floating point number. For example:
898 (inexact->exact 1.234)
899 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
901 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
903 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
906 ** New function 'rationalize'.
908 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
909 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
911 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
914 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
915 result when both its arguments are exact.
917 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
919 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
920 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
921 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
923 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
925 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
926 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
927 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
929 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
932 ** pretty-print has more options.
934 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
935 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
936 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
938 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
940 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
941 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
942 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
944 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
946 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
947 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
949 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
951 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
952 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
955 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
957 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
958 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
959 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
960 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
961 without the soft port blocking.
963 ** Deprecated: undefine
965 There is no replacement for undefine.
967 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
968 have been discouraged.
970 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
971 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
972 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
975 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
977 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
979 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
980 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
981 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
982 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
985 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
986 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
987 be removed in the next major Guile release.
989 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
991 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
992 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
993 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
994 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
995 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
996 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
998 * Changes to the C interface
1000 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1001 take a 'delete' function argument.
1003 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1004 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1006 This is an incompatible change.
1008 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1010 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1011 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1012 --disable-deprecated.
1014 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1016 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1017 Scheme values has been added.
1019 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1020 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1023 - int scm_is_* (...)
1025 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1026 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1028 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1030 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1031 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1034 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1036 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1037 scm_from_int for ints.
1039 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1040 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1041 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1043 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1045 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1046 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1047 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1050 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1052 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1054 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1056 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1057 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1058 following alternatives.
1060 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1061 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1062 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1063 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1065 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1066 do the validating for you.
1068 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1069 have been discouraged.
1071 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1072 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1075 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1077 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1078 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1081 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1083 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1086 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1089 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1091 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1092 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1094 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1095 scm_truncate_number should have.
1097 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1098 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1100 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1103 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1104 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1105 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1107 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1108 easier to use from C.
1110 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1111 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1113 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1114 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1115 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1118 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1119 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1120 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1121 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1124 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1125 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1126 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1127 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1128 and is thus quite efficient.
1130 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1132 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1133 about the character encoding.
1135 Replace according to the following table:
1137 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1138 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1139 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1140 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1141 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1142 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1143 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1144 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1145 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1147 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1148 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1150 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1152 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1153 now also available to C code.
1155 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1157 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1158 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1159 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1161 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1164 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1166 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1167 unceremoniously removed.
1169 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1170 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1171 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1173 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1174 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1175 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1176 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1177 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1178 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1181 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1183 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1184 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1185 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1186 manual for more details.
1188 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1189 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1191 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1192 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1193 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1195 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1197 Migrate according to the following table:
1199 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1200 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1201 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1202 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1203 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1204 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1205 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1207 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1208 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1209 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1210 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1211 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1212 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1213 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1215 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1217 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1218 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1220 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1221 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1222 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1223 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1225 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1227 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1228 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1229 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1231 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1232 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1234 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1235 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1236 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1237 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1239 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1241 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1242 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1243 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1244 prevent a potential memory leak:
1251 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1253 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1254 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1256 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1257 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1264 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1265 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1269 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1271 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1273 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1274 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1275 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1277 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1278 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1280 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1282 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1284 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1285 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1286 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1288 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1289 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1291 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1292 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1293 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1294 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1297 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1299 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1300 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1301 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1303 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1305 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1306 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1308 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1310 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1311 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1313 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1315 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1316 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1317 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1319 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1321 You should not have used them.
1323 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1325 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1326 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1328 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1330 This macro is not intended for public use.
1332 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1334 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1336 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1338 Use scm_is_real instead.
1340 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1342 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1344 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1346 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1347 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1349 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1350 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1352 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1353 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1355 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1357 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1360 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1362 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1363 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1364 to the distribution" above.
1366 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1368 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1369 arguments are now passed directly:
1371 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1373 This is an incompatible change.
1375 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1377 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1378 function in the init section.
1380 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1382 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1384 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1385 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1386 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1387 stays roughly constant.
1389 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1390 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1391 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1392 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1393 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1396 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1397 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1398 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1399 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1401 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1402 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1403 objects for every type.
1406 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1408 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1410 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1412 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1413 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1414 initializes a new cell (see below).
1416 ** New functions for memory management
1418 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1419 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1420 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1421 cause aborts in long running programs.
1423 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1424 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1426 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1427 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1428 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1429 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1430 details and for upgrading instructions.
1432 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1433 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1434 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1436 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1438 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1439 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1440 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1441 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1442 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1444 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1445 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1446 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1448 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1449 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1451 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1453 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1454 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1455 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1456 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1457 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1459 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1461 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1464 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1466 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1468 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1470 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1471 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1473 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1475 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1476 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1478 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1479 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1481 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1483 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1485 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1486 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1487 blocking it is not well defined.
1489 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1491 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1492 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1493 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1494 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1495 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1496 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1497 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1498 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1499 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1500 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1501 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1502 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1503 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1504 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1505 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1506 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1507 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1508 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1509 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1510 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1511 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1512 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1513 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1514 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1515 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1516 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1517 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1518 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1519 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1520 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1521 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1523 * Changes to bundled modules
1527 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1528 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1529 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1530 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1531 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1534 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1536 * Changes to the distribution
1538 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1540 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1542 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1543 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1544 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1545 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1546 indicate major changes in Guile.
1548 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1549 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1550 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1551 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1553 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1554 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1555 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1556 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1557 micro version number.
1559 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1561 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1563 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1564 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1566 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1568 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1569 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1570 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1572 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1574 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1575 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1576 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1579 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1581 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1584 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1586 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1587 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1589 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1591 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1592 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1595 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1597 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1600 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1603 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1605 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1607 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1608 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1609 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1611 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1613 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1615 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1618 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1620 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1622 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1624 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1625 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1626 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1628 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1630 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1632 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1633 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1642 See README there for more info.
1644 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1645 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1648 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1650 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1652 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1654 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1655 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1656 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1658 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1660 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1661 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1662 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1664 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1665 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1667 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1670 (oop goops describe)
1672 (oop goops active-slot)
1673 (oop goops composite-slot)
1675 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1676 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1677 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1679 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1681 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1682 in the default environment:
1684 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1685 %read-line write-line
1687 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1688 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1690 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1692 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1695 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1696 can be used for similar functionality.
1698 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1700 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1701 it defines two procedures:
1703 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1705 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1706 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1707 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1710 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1712 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1713 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1714 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1715 write large strings.
1717 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1719 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1720 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1722 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1724 for complete documentation.
1726 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1728 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1729 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1730 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1731 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1733 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1734 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1738 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1739 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1740 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1743 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1746 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1747 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1749 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1750 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1753 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1756 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1758 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1760 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1762 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1764 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1765 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1766 Scheme programs easier.
1768 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1769 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1770 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1771 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1772 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1775 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1776 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1778 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1781 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1783 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1784 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1785 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1788 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1790 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1792 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1793 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1794 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1795 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1796 was also ASCII, for example.
1798 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1800 tag - no replacement.
1801 fseek - replaced by seek.
1802 list* - replaced by cons*.
1804 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1808 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1809 (define m (make-safe-module))
1810 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1811 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1812 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1814 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1816 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1817 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1818 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1820 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1822 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1823 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1824 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1825 from the issues related to the module system.
1827 *** New function: load-extension
1829 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1831 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1833 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1834 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1835 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1837 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1839 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1840 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1841 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1842 support dynamic linking).
1844 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1846 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1847 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1848 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1849 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1852 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1853 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1854 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1855 library and initialize it explicitly.
1857 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1858 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1860 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1862 (define-module (foo bar))
1864 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1866 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1868 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1869 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1871 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1872 (null-environment 5)
1873 (interaction-environment)
1879 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1881 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1882 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1883 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1884 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1886 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1887 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1888 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1889 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1890 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1891 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1892 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1893 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1894 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1895 one eval to the next.
1897 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1898 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1899 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1900 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1901 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1903 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1904 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1905 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1906 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1907 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1908 used in a lexical environment.
1910 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1911 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1912 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1913 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1914 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1915 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1917 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1919 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1920 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1921 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1922 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1923 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1925 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1926 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1927 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1929 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1930 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1932 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1933 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1934 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1936 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1937 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1939 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1940 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1941 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1942 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1945 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1946 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1947 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1948 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1950 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1951 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1952 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1954 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1955 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1956 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1957 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1958 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1960 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1962 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1963 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1964 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1966 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1967 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1968 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1970 See manual for more info.
1972 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1974 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1975 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1976 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1978 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1980 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1981 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1982 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1984 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1985 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1986 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1987 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1989 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1991 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1992 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1994 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1995 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1996 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1997 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1998 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2001 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2002 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2003 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2004 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2005 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2006 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2008 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2009 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2010 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2011 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2012 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2014 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2015 objects are usually permanent.
2017 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2018 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2020 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2022 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2023 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2026 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2030 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2035 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2037 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2038 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2039 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2040 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2042 ** New function `make-object-property'
2044 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2045 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2049 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2050 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2054 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2055 source properties eventually.
2057 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2059 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2060 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2061 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2063 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2064 will be removed in the next release.
2066 ** New define-module option: pure
2068 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2073 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2076 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2078 Export names NAME1 ...
2080 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2081 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2085 (define-module (foo)
2087 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2090 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2095 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2097 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2099 ** New function: port? X
2101 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2102 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2104 ** New function: file-port?
2106 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2108 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2110 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2111 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2112 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2113 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2114 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2116 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2118 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2119 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2120 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2121 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2122 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2125 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2127 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2128 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2129 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2130 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2133 ** New function: crypt password salt
2135 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2138 ** New function: chroot path
2140 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2142 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2144 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2147 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2149 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2151 ** New function: getpass prompt
2153 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2156 ** New function: flock file operation
2158 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2160 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2162 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2165 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2167 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2168 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2169 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2170 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2171 of the temporary file.
2173 ** New function: open-input-string string
2175 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2176 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2177 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2179 ** New function: open-output-string
2181 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2182 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2184 ** New function: get-output-string
2186 Return the contents of an output string port.
2188 ** New function: identity
2190 Return the argument.
2192 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2193 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2195 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2197 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2198 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2199 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2202 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2203 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2205 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2207 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2208 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2209 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2212 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2213 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2214 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2218 Use `identity' instead.
2224 ** Deprecated: return-it
2228 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2230 Use `string-length' instead.
2232 ** Deprecated: flags
2234 Use `logior' instead.
2236 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2238 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2239 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2240 port-for-each is more flexible.
2242 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2243 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2244 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2246 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2248 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2250 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2252 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2254 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2256 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2257 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2259 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2260 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2262 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2263 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2265 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2267 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2268 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2270 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2271 Use module system operations for all variables.
2273 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2275 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2278 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2280 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2281 The following bugs have been fixed:
2283 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2284 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2287 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2288 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2289 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2291 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2292 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2294 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2295 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2298 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2299 The expansion used to be like so:
2301 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2303 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2305 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2307 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2308 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2310 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2312 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2313 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2314 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2318 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2319 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2321 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2326 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2327 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2329 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2330 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2331 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2333 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2336 * Changes to the C interface
2338 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2340 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2341 with "_t". What a concept.
2343 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2345 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2347 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2351 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2352 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2354 *** C Functions removed
2356 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2357 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2358 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2359 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2360 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2361 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2362 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2364 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2366 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2368 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2370 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2372 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2373 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2375 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2377 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2380 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2382 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2384 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2386 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2387 Evaluation" in the manual.
2389 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2391 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2392 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2394 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2396 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2397 Constructors" in the manual.
2399 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2401 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2402 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2404 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2406 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2408 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2409 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2410 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2412 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2414 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2416 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2417 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2418 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2421 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2423 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2425 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2426 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2428 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2430 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2431 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2432 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2433 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2435 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2436 scm_primitive_property_ref
2437 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2438 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2440 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2441 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2443 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2445 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2446 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2447 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2448 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2450 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2452 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2453 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2454 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2455 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2456 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2457 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2458 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2460 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2461 scm_remember_upto_here
2463 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2465 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2467 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2468 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2470 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2472 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2474 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2476 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2478 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2480 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2481 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2482 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2483 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2484 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2485 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2487 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2489 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2491 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2492 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2493 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2495 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2497 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2498 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2499 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2501 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2503 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2504 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2507 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2510 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2511 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2514 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2516 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2518 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2520 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2522 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2524 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2526 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2527 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2528 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2529 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2530 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2531 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2532 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2533 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2534 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2535 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2536 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2537 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2538 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2539 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2540 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2542 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2543 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2544 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2545 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2546 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2547 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2548 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2549 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2550 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2551 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2552 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2553 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2554 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2555 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2556 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2557 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2558 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2559 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2560 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2561 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2562 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2563 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2564 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2565 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2566 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2567 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2568 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2569 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2570 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2572 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2574 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2576 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2577 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2579 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2581 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2583 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2585 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2587 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2589 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2591 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2593 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2595 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2598 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2599 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2601 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2603 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2605 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2607 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2609 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2611 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2613 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2615 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2618 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2620 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2622 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2624 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2625 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2627 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2628 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2630 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2632 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2633 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2634 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2636 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2638 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2640 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2641 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2643 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2644 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2645 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2646 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2648 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2649 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2650 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2652 Use the new ones from above instead.
2654 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2656 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2657 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2658 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2660 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2661 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2663 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2664 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2667 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2668 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2670 Use the new functions instead.
2672 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2675 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2677 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2679 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2682 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2684 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2687 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2689 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2692 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2693 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2694 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2696 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2698 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2699 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2701 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2702 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2703 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2704 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2707 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2709 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2710 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2711 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2712 inexact for an exact.
2714 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2715 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2716 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2719 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2720 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2721 accept an inexact argument.
2723 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2724 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2726 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2729 ** New number validation macros:
2730 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2734 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2736 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2737 scm_unprotect_object.
2739 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2741 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2743 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2746 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2748 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2752 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2754 * Changes to the distribution
2756 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2758 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2759 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2760 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2761 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2762 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2763 obtain these programs.
2764 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2765 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2767 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2768 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2769 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2770 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2771 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2773 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2774 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2775 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2776 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2780 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2783 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2784 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2785 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2786 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2788 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2790 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2792 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2793 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2795 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2796 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2798 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2799 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2801 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2802 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2803 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2804 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2806 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2808 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2812 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2813 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2815 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2817 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2818 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2820 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2821 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2822 number of objects of that kind.
2824 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2826 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2827 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2828 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2829 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2830 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2832 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2834 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2836 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2838 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2841 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2843 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2845 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2847 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2849 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2851 ** New command line option --debug
2853 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2855 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2857 ** New help facility
2859 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2860 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2861 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2862 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2863 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2864 (help) gives this text
2866 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2867 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2869 Examples: (help help)
2871 (help "output-string")
2873 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2875 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2877 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2878 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2881 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2882 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2883 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2886 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2887 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2888 use absolute filenames when possible.
2890 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2891 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2892 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2895 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2897 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2898 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2899 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2900 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2902 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2904 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2906 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2907 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2908 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2910 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2911 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2912 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2914 (read-enable 'positions)
2915 (debug-enable 'debug)
2917 ** Backtraces in scripts
2919 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2923 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2925 at the top of the script.
2927 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2928 The second enables backtraces.)
2930 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2932 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2933 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2934 substantially faster than before.
2936 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2937 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2939 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2940 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2942 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2944 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2945 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2946 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2948 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2949 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2950 when this hook is run in the future.
2952 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2953 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2955 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2957 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2958 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2961 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2962 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2963 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2965 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2966 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2968 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2969 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2971 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2972 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2973 in order not to need further allocation.)
2975 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2978 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2979 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2980 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2981 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2983 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2985 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2988 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2990 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2993 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2994 GC in percent of total heap size
2997 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2998 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3000 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3002 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3003 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3005 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3007 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3008 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3010 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3012 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3013 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3017 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3018 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3020 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3022 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3024 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3026 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3028 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3030 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3031 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3033 (simple-format port message . args)
3034 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3035 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3036 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3037 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3038 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3039 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3040 Does not add a trailing newline."
3042 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3044 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3045 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3047 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3048 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3050 ** Deprecated: list*
3052 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3054 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3056 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3057 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3059 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3060 is returned as result.
3062 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3064 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3066 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3068 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3069 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3072 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3074 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3076 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3077 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3079 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3081 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3083 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3085 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3087 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3089 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3091 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3093 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3094 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3095 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3097 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3100 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3102 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3103 the readability of argument checking.
3105 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3107 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3109 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3111 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3112 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3113 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3114 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3115 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3116 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3117 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3119 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3121 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3123 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3124 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3126 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3128 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3129 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3132 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3134 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3135 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3136 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3138 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3139 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3140 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3142 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3143 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3144 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3145 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3146 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3147 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3148 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3150 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3151 scm_end_input (object);
3152 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3153 ptob->flush (object);
3155 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3156 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3159 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3161 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3163 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3164 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3165 removed in a future version.
3167 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3169 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3170 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3171 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3172 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3174 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3175 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3177 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3180 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3182 in your configure.in.
3184 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3189 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3195 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3197 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3201 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3202 (define make-message string-append)
3204 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3206 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3210 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3215 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3219 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3221 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3222 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3224 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3226 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3227 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3228 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3229 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3230 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3231 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3233 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3234 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3235 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3237 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3238 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3239 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3242 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3243 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3244 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3245 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3246 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3248 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3249 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3250 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3251 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3252 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3253 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3254 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3256 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3258 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3259 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3260 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3262 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3263 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3264 KEY in the calling thread.
3266 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3267 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3268 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3269 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3270 associated with the key.
3272 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3274 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3275 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3277 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3279 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3280 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3281 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3283 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3285 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3286 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3288 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3290 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3292 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3293 returned is undefined.
3295 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3296 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3297 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3299 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3300 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3301 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3303 ** New C level GC hooks
3305 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3307 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3310 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3311 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3312 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3314 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3315 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3316 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3318 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3319 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3322 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3324 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3325 allocation parameters
3327 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3328 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3329 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3333 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3334 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3335 scm_default_max_segment_size
3337 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3339 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3340 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3342 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3344 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3345 object and count on the object being protected until
3346 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3348 The functions also have better time complexity.
3350 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3351 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3352 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3353 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3354 are no longer needed.
3356 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3358 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3359 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3360 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3361 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3363 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3365 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3367 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3369 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3370 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3371 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3372 until this issue has been settled.
3374 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3376 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3378 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3381 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3383 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3385 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3386 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3387 descriptors were checked.
3389 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3390 atomically written to a pipe.
3392 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3393 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3394 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3395 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3396 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3397 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3398 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3401 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3402 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3403 is changed without calling tzset.
3405 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3407 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3408 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3409 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3411 (define write-network-long
3412 (lambda (value port)
3413 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3414 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3415 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3417 (define read-network-long
3419 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3420 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3421 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3423 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3424 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3426 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3427 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3428 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3429 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3431 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3432 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3433 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3434 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3438 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3440 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3444 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3445 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3446 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3452 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3453 for a description of available commands.
3455 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3456 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3457 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3459 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3461 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3462 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3464 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3466 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3468 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3469 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3470 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3471 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3472 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3473 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3476 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3478 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3479 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3480 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3481 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3483 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3484 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3486 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3488 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3490 ** Readline support has changed again.
3492 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3493 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3494 to activate readline is now
3496 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3499 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3501 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3502 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3503 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3506 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3507 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3508 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3511 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3512 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3513 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3514 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3515 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3516 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3518 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3519 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3521 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3523 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3524 object it receives is the same string passed to
3525 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3526 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3527 string, not the suffix.
3529 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3530 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3531 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3533 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3535 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3536 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3537 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3538 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3541 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3543 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3545 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3546 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3547 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3548 appear from left to right.
3550 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3553 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3555 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3556 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3558 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3562 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3564 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3566 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3568 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3569 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3570 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3572 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3574 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3576 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3578 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3581 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3583 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3584 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3585 mentioning it here anyway.
3587 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3589 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3590 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3591 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3592 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3595 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3597 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3599 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3601 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3602 otherwise return #f.
3604 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3606 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3607 returned by `opendir'.
3609 ** New function: using-readline?
3611 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3613 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3615 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3616 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3618 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3620 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3622 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3623 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3624 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3626 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3628 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3629 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3631 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3633 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3634 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3635 documentation slots are not yet used.
3637 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3639 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3640 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3641 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3646 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3647 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3648 (string-append x y))
3650 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3651 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3653 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3654 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3655 be made in a clean way.]
3657 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3659 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3661 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3663 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3664 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3666 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3668 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3670 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3672 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3674 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3675 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3676 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3677 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3680 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3682 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3684 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3686 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3688 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3689 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3691 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3693 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3695 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3697 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3699 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3700 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3701 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3702 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3703 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3704 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3706 This should not make any difference for most users.
3708 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3710 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3711 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3713 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3715 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3716 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3717 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3718 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3719 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3721 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3723 It is now replaced by:
3725 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3727 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3728 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3730 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3732 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3733 This might change when we get the new module system.
3735 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3739 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3741 * Changes to mailing lists
3743 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3745 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3748 * Changes to the distribution
3750 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3752 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3753 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3754 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3755 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3756 you explicitly specify it.
3758 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3759 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3760 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3761 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3762 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3765 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3766 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3767 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3768 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3770 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3771 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3772 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3775 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3777 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3780 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3782 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3784 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3785 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3786 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3787 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3789 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3790 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3793 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3795 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3796 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3797 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3798 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3799 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3800 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3801 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3802 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3814 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3815 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3816 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3817 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3818 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3823 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3824 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3832 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3837 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3838 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3841 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3842 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3843 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3844 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3846 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3848 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3850 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3851 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3853 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3855 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3857 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3858 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3860 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3863 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3865 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3867 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3869 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3871 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3873 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3875 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3876 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3877 when the hook was created.
3879 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3880 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3881 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3882 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3883 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3884 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3885 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3886 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3887 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3889 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3890 the dlopen family of functions.
3892 ** New function `provided?'
3894 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3895 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3896 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3897 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3899 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3901 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3902 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3903 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3904 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3907 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3908 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3909 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3910 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3912 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3913 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3914 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3917 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3918 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3919 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3920 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3921 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3922 but with the flag set.
3924 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3926 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3927 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3929 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3930 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3931 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3932 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3933 available Scheme format implementations.
3935 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3936 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3937 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3938 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3939 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3940 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3941 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3942 output is to the current error port if available by the
3943 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3946 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3947 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3948 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3949 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3950 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3951 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3952 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3953 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3955 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3956 be executed at a time.
3959 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3961 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3962 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3963 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3965 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3966 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3967 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3968 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3969 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3970 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3971 general form of a directive is:
3973 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3975 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3977 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3979 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3980 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3981 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3984 Any (print as `display' does).
3988 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3992 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3996 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4002 print number sign always.
4005 print comma separated.
4007 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4013 print number sign always.
4016 print comma separated.
4018 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4024 print number sign always.
4027 print comma separated.
4029 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4035 print number sign always.
4038 print comma separated.
4040 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4045 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4049 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4052 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4055 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4058 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4063 prints `y' and `ies'.
4066 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4069 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4074 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4078 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4081 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4082 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4084 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4087 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4088 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4090 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4093 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4095 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4097 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4100 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4102 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4104 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4107 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4110 The sign appears before the padding.
4118 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4120 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4125 print N page separators.
4135 newline is ignored, white space left.
4138 newline is left, white space ignored.
4143 relative tabulation.
4149 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4151 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4154 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4156 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4159 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4162 converts by `string-upcase'.
4165 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4167 jumps N arguments forward.
4170 jumps 1 argument backward.
4173 jumps N arguments backward.
4176 jumps to the 0th argument.
4179 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4181 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4182 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4184 take argument from N.
4187 true test conditional.
4190 if-else-then conditional.
4196 default clause follows.
4199 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4201 at most N iterations.
4204 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4207 args from the rest of arguments.
4210 args from the rest args (lists).
4221 aborts if N <= M <= K
4223 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4226 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4229 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4235 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4237 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4239 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4240 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4241 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4242 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4243 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4244 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4248 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4252 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4258 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4261 Print a `#\space' character
4263 print N `#\space' characters.
4266 Print a `#\tab' character
4268 print N `#\tab' characters.
4271 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4272 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4273 must be a positive decimal number.
4276 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4277 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4278 be processed by `read'.
4281 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4282 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4283 be processed by `read'.
4286 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4289 prints format version.
4292 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4293 and format it accordingly.
4295 *** Configuration Variables
4297 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4298 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4299 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4300 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4303 format:symbol-case-conv
4304 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4305 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4306 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4307 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4308 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4310 format:iobj-case-conv
4311 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4312 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4315 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4318 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4324 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4325 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4326 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4327 `format' padding style.
4330 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4331 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4332 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4333 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4337 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4338 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4339 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4342 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4343 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4344 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4345 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4346 parameters or modifiers)).
4349 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4351 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4353 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4354 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4356 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4357 string-downcase! functions.
4359 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4360 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4362 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4365 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4368 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4369 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4371 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4373 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4374 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4376 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4377 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4378 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4379 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4380 would if STRING were input.
4382 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4384 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4385 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4386 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4387 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4390 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4392 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4393 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4396 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4398 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4399 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4401 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4402 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4404 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4405 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4406 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4407 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4409 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4410 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4412 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4413 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4414 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4416 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4417 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4419 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4420 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4421 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4422 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4423 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4425 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4426 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4427 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4428 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4429 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4430 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4432 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4433 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4434 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4437 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4438 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4439 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4440 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4441 the following grammar:
4442 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4443 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4444 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4445 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4446 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4447 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4448 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4449 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4450 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4451 last option in its combination)
4453 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4454 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4455 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4456 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4458 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4459 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4460 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4462 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4463 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4464 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4466 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4467 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4468 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4469 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4470 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4471 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4472 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4473 ordinary argument strings.
4475 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4476 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4477 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4478 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4480 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4481 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4483 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4484 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4485 - a required option is omitted
4486 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4487 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4488 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4489 - an option predicate fails
4494 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4497 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4498 (verbose (required? #f)
4501 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4502 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4503 (predicate ,string?))))
4505 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4506 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4508 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4509 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4510 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4511 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4514 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4516 It will be removed in a few releases.
4518 ** New syntax: lambda*
4519 ** New syntax: define*
4520 ** New syntax: define*-public
4521 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4522 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4523 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4525 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4526 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4527 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4528 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4529 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4531 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4532 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4533 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4535 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4537 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4538 and examples for `lambda*':
4541 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4543 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4544 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4545 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4546 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4547 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4548 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4549 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4550 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4552 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4554 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4555 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4556 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4557 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4559 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4560 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4561 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4562 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4563 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4564 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4565 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4566 and until the procedure is called.
4568 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4570 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4571 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4572 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4573 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4574 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4575 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4576 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4577 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4578 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4579 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4581 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4582 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4583 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4584 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4587 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4589 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4590 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4591 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4592 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4594 ** New syntax: and-let*
4595 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4597 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4598 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4599 (<variable> <expression>)
4602 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4603 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4604 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4607 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4608 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4609 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4610 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4611 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4612 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4613 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4615 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4616 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4617 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4618 shadow earlier bindings.
4620 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4622 ** New sorting functions
4624 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4625 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4626 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4627 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4629 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4630 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4633 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4634 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4635 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4637 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4638 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4639 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4640 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4642 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4643 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4644 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4645 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4646 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4649 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4650 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4651 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4652 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4653 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4654 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4656 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4657 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4658 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4660 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4661 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4662 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4665 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4666 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4667 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4669 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4670 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4672 ** New built-in random number support
4674 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4675 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4676 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4677 returned have a uniform distribution.
4679 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4680 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4681 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4682 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4683 effect of the `random' operation.
4685 *** New variable: *random-state*
4686 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4687 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4688 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4689 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4690 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4693 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4694 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4695 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4696 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4697 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4699 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4700 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4701 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4702 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4703 initialized using SEED.
4705 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4706 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4707 range between 0 and 1.
4709 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4710 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4711 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4712 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4713 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4714 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4715 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4717 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4718 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4719 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4720 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4721 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4722 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4724 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4725 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4726 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4727 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4729 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4730 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4731 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4732 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4734 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4735 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4736 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4738 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4740 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4743 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4744 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4747 ** New function: make-guardian
4748 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4749 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4750 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4751 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4752 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4754 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4755 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4756 one object if at all.
4758 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4759 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4760 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4762 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4763 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4764 read again in last-in first-out order.
4766 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4767 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4769 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4771 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4772 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4773 file position is used.
4775 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4776 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4777 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4779 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4780 redefined using seek.
4782 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4783 size is not supplied.
4785 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4786 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4788 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4789 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4791 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4793 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4794 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4795 and returns the contents as a single string.
4797 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4798 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4799 lists in serial order.
4801 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4802 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4803 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4805 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4806 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4807 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4808 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4810 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4811 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4812 and #f if an error occured.
4814 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4816 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4817 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4818 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4819 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4821 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4823 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4826 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4828 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4831 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4835 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4836 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4838 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4839 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4843 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4845 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4847 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4848 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4850 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4852 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4853 might change when we get the new module system.
4855 ** The smob interface
4857 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4858 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4860 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4862 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4866 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4867 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4868 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4869 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4870 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4871 will be freed by the default free function.
4873 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4874 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4875 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4876 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4878 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4879 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4880 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4881 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4883 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4885 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4886 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4890 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4891 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4892 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4894 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4895 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4896 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4897 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4899 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4900 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4901 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4903 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4904 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4905 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4906 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4908 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4909 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4910 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4912 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4916 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4918 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4919 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4920 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4922 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4923 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4924 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4926 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4927 a string port's buffer.
4929 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4930 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4931 function pointers which together define the current random number
4932 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4933 number library functions.
4935 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4938 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4939 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4942 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4943 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4945 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4946 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4948 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4949 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4952 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4953 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4954 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4955 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4957 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4958 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4959 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4960 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4961 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4962 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4963 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4965 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4966 by libguile and the application.
4968 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4969 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4970 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4971 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4973 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4974 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4976 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4977 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4978 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4980 ** Random number library functions
4981 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4982 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4983 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4985 The default random state is stored in:
4987 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4988 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4989 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4994 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4996 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4997 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4998 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4999 isn't a random state.
5001 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5002 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5004 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5005 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5006 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5007 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5009 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5010 Return 32 random bits.
5012 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5013 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5015 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5016 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5018 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5019 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5021 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5022 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5024 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5025 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5026 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5030 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5032 * Changes to the distribution
5034 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5035 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5036 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5039 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5040 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5041 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5043 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5044 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5045 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5046 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5049 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5050 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5051 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5053 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5055 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5057 *** Function: batch-mode?
5059 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5062 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5064 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5065 case has not been implemented.
5067 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5068 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5069 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5072 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5073 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5075 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5077 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5079 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5081 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5082 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5085 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5086 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5087 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5088 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5091 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5093 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5094 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5095 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5096 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5097 find those libraries.
5099 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5100 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5103 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5105 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5106 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5107 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5108 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5110 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5111 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5112 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5116 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5118 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5119 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5120 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5123 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5124 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5125 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5126 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5128 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5129 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5132 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5133 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5134 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5135 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5136 compiler where to find the libraries.
5138 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5139 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5140 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5142 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5143 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5144 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5145 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5146 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5150 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5152 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5153 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5154 internationalization support.
5156 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5157 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5158 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5159 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5160 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5162 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5163 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5164 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5165 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5166 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5168 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5169 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5170 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5171 any GNU mirror site.
5173 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5175 ** New function: add-history STRING
5176 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5177 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5178 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5180 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5182 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5183 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5184 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5187 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5188 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5189 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5191 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5193 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5196 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5197 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5200 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5201 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5202 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5203 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5204 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5205 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5207 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5208 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5209 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5210 of the form mentioned above.
5212 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5213 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5214 returned in the special `rest' list.
5216 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5217 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5219 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5221 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5223 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5225 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5226 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5227 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5228 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5229 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5230 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5231 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5232 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5235 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5237 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5239 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5240 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5243 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5244 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5245 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5249 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5250 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5251 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5252 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5253 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5254 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5255 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5256 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5259 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5261 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5262 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5263 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5265 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5267 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5268 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5270 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5271 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5272 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5274 Why do we have this function?
5275 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5276 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5277 primitive, and display it differently, and
5278 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5279 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5282 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5283 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5286 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5287 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5288 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5289 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5291 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5292 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5295 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5296 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5298 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5300 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5301 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5302 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5303 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5304 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5305 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5306 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5309 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5311 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5312 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5314 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5315 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5316 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5317 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5318 properly continue the print chain.
5320 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5321 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5322 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5323 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5324 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5325 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5326 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5327 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5329 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5330 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5331 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5332 safest to not check for these pairs.
5334 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5335 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5336 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5337 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5339 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5341 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5342 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5344 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5346 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5348 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5349 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5350 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5352 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5353 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5354 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5356 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5357 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5358 the following functions and macros:
5360 Function: make-fluid
5362 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5363 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5364 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5365 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5366 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5368 Function: fluid? OBJ
5370 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5372 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5373 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5375 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5376 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5378 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5380 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5381 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5382 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5383 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5384 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5385 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5386 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5388 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5390 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5391 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5392 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5393 should evaluate to a fluid.
5395 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5397 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5398 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5399 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5400 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5401 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5403 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5406 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5408 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5410 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5412 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5415 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5416 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5417 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5418 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5419 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5422 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5423 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5424 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5426 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5427 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5428 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5430 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5431 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5432 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5433 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5435 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5436 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5437 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5438 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5440 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5441 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5442 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5443 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5445 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5446 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5447 their revealed counts set to zero.
5449 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5450 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5452 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5453 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5455 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5456 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5458 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5459 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5460 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5462 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5463 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5464 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5466 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5467 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5468 default environment inherited by child processes.
5470 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5471 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5472 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5474 The return value is unspecified.
5476 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5477 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5478 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5479 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5480 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5482 The return value is unspecified.
5484 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5485 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5493 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5494 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5497 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5500 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5501 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5502 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5504 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5505 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5506 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5507 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5510 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5511 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5513 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5514 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5515 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5516 the `environ' procedure.
5518 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5519 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5522 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5523 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5525 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5526 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5527 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5528 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5530 *** procedure: times
5531 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5532 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5533 return a selected component:
5536 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5540 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5543 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5547 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5548 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5552 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5553 terminated child processes.
5555 ** Removed: list-length
5556 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5557 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5559 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5561 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5563 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5565 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5566 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5567 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5568 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5570 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5571 extra complexity it introduces.
5573 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5574 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5576 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5577 variable to any non-empty value.
5579 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5580 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5582 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5584 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5585 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5587 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5589 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5590 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5592 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5594 ** vector handling routines
5596 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5597 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5598 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5599 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5600 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5602 ** pair and list routines
5604 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5607 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5609 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5612 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5614 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5616 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5617 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5618 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5619 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5620 site-specific initialization code.
5622 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5623 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5624 initialization processes.
5626 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5627 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5628 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5629 initialized properly.
5631 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5632 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5633 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5635 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5636 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5637 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5638 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5639 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5641 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5643 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5644 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5645 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5646 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5647 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5649 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5650 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5651 which look like this:
5654 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5656 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5657 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5660 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5661 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5664 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5666 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5667 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5668 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5670 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5671 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5672 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5673 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5674 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5676 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5677 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5679 int (*free) (SCM port);
5680 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5681 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5682 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5686 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5687 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5688 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5690 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5693 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5694 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5695 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5697 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5698 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5699 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5702 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5706 struct timeval *timeout);
5708 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5709 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5710 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5711 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5712 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5713 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5715 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5716 scm_catch_body_t body,
5718 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5721 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5722 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5723 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5724 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5725 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5726 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5728 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5730 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5733 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5734 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5735 spawning threads from application C code.
5737 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5738 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5739 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5740 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5741 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5742 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5744 ** Removed functions:
5746 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5747 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5749 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5751 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5752 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5754 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5756 ** mbstrings are now removed
5758 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5759 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5761 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5763 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5764 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5765 their new names and arguments:
5767 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5768 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5769 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5770 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5773 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5775 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5777 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5780 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5782 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5783 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5784 pass a #f arg to catch.
5786 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5788 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5789 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5792 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5793 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5794 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5795 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5796 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5797 reclaim its storage.
5799 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5800 worrying that some other function you call will call
5801 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5802 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5803 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5804 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5807 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5809 * Changes to the distribution
5811 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5812 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5815 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5816 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5818 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5819 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5821 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5823 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5824 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5825 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5827 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5829 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5830 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5831 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5832 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5833 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5834 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5836 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5837 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5838 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5841 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5842 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5843 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5844 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5846 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5847 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5848 libraries to your link command:
5850 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5851 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5852 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5853 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5855 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5856 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5857 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5859 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5861 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5862 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5865 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5867 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5868 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5869 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5870 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5871 searched is system dependent.
5873 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5875 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5877 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5879 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5880 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5882 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5884 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5885 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5886 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5887 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5888 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5891 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5893 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5894 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5895 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5896 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5897 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5899 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5901 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5902 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5904 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5906 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5907 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5908 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5911 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5913 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5914 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5915 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5916 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5918 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5919 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5921 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5923 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5924 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5926 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5928 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5929 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5937 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5939 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5940 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5941 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5942 a more informative way.
5944 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5945 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5946 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5947 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5948 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5949 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5951 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5952 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5955 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5956 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5957 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5960 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5961 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5962 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5963 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5964 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5965 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5967 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5968 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5969 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5970 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5973 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5974 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5975 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5976 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5977 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5978 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5980 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5981 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5982 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5983 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5984 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5986 *** regexp functions
5988 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5989 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5990 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5992 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5993 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5994 with SCSH regular expressions.
5996 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5997 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5998 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5999 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6001 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6002 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6003 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6004 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6006 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6007 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6008 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6009 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6010 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6011 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6013 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6014 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6015 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6016 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6017 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6019 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6021 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6022 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6023 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6024 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6026 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6027 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6028 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6030 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6031 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6033 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6036 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6037 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6038 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6040 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6041 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6042 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6044 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6045 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6046 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6047 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6048 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6051 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6053 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6054 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6055 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6056 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6057 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6058 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6060 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6061 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6062 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6064 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6065 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6068 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6069 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6071 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6072 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6073 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6074 may be one of the following arguments:
6076 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6078 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6080 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6081 the regexp match is written.
6083 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6084 following the regexp match is written.
6086 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6087 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6090 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6091 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6092 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6093 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6094 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6095 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6097 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6100 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6101 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6102 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6103 written out to PORT.
6105 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6106 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6107 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6108 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6109 will return after processing a single match.
6111 *** Match Structures
6113 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6114 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6115 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6116 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6117 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6118 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6121 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6122 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6123 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6124 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6125 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6127 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6128 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6129 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6131 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6132 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6133 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6134 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6135 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6137 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6138 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6140 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6141 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6143 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6144 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6146 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6147 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6149 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6150 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6151 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6152 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6154 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6155 Return the original TARGET string.
6157 *** Backslash Escapes
6159 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6160 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6161 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6162 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6163 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6164 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6166 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6167 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6168 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6169 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6170 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6171 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6172 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6173 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6175 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6176 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6177 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6178 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6179 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6180 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6181 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6183 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6184 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6185 return the resulting string.
6187 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6188 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6189 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6190 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6191 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6192 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6193 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6194 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6195 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6196 translated to the single character `*'.
6198 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6199 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6200 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6201 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6202 consecutive backslashes:
6204 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6206 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6207 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6208 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6210 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6211 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6212 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6213 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6214 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6215 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6217 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6219 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6220 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6221 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6222 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6223 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6224 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6225 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6226 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6227 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6228 cumbersome escape syntax.
6230 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6232 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6234 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6236 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6239 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6241 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6243 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6246 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6247 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6248 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6249 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6250 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6252 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6253 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6254 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6255 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6256 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6257 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6258 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6261 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6262 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6263 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6266 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6267 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6269 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6270 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6271 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6272 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6273 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6274 installed, you can say:
6276 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6279 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6281 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6282 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6283 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6284 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6285 new dynamic roots and threads.
6288 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6290 * Changes to the distribution.
6292 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6294 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6295 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6296 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6297 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6298 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6299 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6300 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6301 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6303 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6306 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6307 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6312 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6314 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6315 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6317 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6318 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6319 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6320 the (command-line) function.
6321 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6322 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6323 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6325 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6326 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6327 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6328 command line arguments
6329 -ds do -s script at this point
6330 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6331 -h, --help display this help and exit
6332 -v, --version display version information and exit
6333 \ read arguments from following script lines
6335 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6336 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6338 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6341 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6345 (main (command-line))
6347 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6349 ekko a speckled gecko
6351 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6352 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6353 following list of command-line arguments:
6355 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6357 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6358 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6359 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6360 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6361 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6363 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6365 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6367 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6368 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6371 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6372 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6373 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6374 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6376 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6377 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6378 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6379 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6381 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6385 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6389 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6391 ekko a speckled gecko
6393 Unix expands this into
6395 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6397 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6398 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6400 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6402 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6403 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6405 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6406 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6407 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6408 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6409 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6410 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6411 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6412 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6413 it only terminates the argument list.)
6414 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6415 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6416 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6417 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6418 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6419 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6420 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6421 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6423 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6425 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6426 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6427 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6428 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6429 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6431 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6432 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6433 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6435 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6437 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6438 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6439 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6440 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6443 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6444 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6445 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6447 * Changes to Scheme functions
6449 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6450 and disabled by default.
6452 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6453 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6454 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6455 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6457 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6459 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6461 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6462 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6464 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6465 (read-set! keywords #f)
6467 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6468 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6469 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6472 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6473 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6474 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6477 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6478 support for Scheme functions.
6480 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6481 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6482 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6483 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6486 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6487 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6488 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6491 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6492 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6493 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6496 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6497 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6498 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6499 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6500 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6501 display the result as a prompt.
6502 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6504 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6505 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6506 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6509 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6510 procedure of zero arguments.
6512 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6513 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6514 argument is bound in the current module.
6516 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6517 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6518 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6519 public bindings into the current module.
6521 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6522 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6524 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6525 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6527 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6528 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6530 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6531 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6533 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6534 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6536 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6537 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6538 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6539 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6540 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6542 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6543 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6544 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6545 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6547 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6550 ** Changes to I/O functions
6552 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6553 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6554 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6556 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6557 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6558 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6560 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6561 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6563 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6564 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6565 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6566 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6568 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6570 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6571 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6573 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6574 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6575 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6576 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6577 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6580 'trim omit delimiter from result
6581 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6582 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6583 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6585 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6587 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6588 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6590 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6591 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6592 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6593 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6594 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6596 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6597 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6598 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6600 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6601 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6602 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6603 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6605 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6606 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6608 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6609 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6611 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6613 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6614 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6615 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6616 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6617 a delimiting character.
6618 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6620 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6621 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6622 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6623 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6624 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6625 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6627 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6628 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6630 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6631 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6632 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6634 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6635 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6636 the array to read and write.
6638 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6639 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6642 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6644 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6647 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6648 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6649 Values for COMMAND are:
6651 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6652 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6653 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6654 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6655 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6656 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6657 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6658 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6660 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6662 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6663 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6664 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6665 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6666 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6667 corresponding return set will be the same.
6669 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6672 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6673 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6674 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6675 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6676 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6677 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6678 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6679 special file being created.
6681 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6682 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6684 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6685 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6686 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6687 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6688 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6689 and originating address.
6691 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6692 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6693 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6695 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6698 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6699 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6702 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6703 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6704 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6705 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6706 this function returns #f.
6708 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6709 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6710 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6713 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6714 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6715 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6718 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6719 a valid STATUS value.
6721 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6723 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6724 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6726 Component Accessor Setter
6727 ========================= ============ ============
6728 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6729 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6730 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6731 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6732 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6733 year tm:year set-tm:year
6734 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6735 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6736 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6737 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6738 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6740 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6741 describing the host system:
6744 ============================================== ================
6745 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6746 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6747 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6748 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6749 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6751 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6752 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6753 system's user database:
6756 ====================== =================
6757 user name passwd:name
6758 user password passwd:passwd
6761 real name passwd:gecos
6762 home directory passwd:dir
6763 shell program passwd:shell
6765 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6766 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6767 system's group database:
6770 ======================= ============
6771 group name group:name
6772 group password group:passwd
6774 group members group:mem
6776 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6777 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6781 ========================= ===============
6782 official name of host hostent:name
6783 alias list hostent:aliases
6784 host address type hostent:addrtype
6785 length of address hostent:length
6786 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6788 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6789 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6793 ========================= ===============
6794 official name of net netent:name
6795 alias list netent:aliases
6796 net number type netent:addrtype
6797 net number netent:net
6799 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6800 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6804 ========================= ===============
6805 official protocol name protoent:name
6806 alias list protoent:aliases
6807 protocol number protoent:proto
6809 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6810 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6814 ========================= ===============
6815 official service name servent:name
6816 alias list servent:aliases
6817 port number servent:port
6818 protocol to use servent:proto
6820 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6821 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6824 ======================================== ===============
6825 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6826 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6827 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6828 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6830 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6831 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6832 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6834 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6835 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6837 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6838 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6840 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6841 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6843 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6845 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6847 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6848 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6849 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6851 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6852 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6853 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6854 return the remaining characters as a string.
6856 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6857 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6858 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6860 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6862 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6864 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6867 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6870 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6871 and returns the array
6873 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6874 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6875 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6877 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6879 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6880 symbol's value from C code:
6882 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6883 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6884 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6885 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6887 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6888 without assigning them a value.
6890 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6891 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6892 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6894 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6895 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6896 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6898 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6899 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6901 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6902 doesn't actually care about that.
6904 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6905 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6906 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6908 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6909 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6910 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6911 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6912 which we have just created and initialized.
6914 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6915 should one occur. We call it like this:
6916 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6918 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6919 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6920 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6921 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6922 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6923 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6926 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6927 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6928 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6929 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6930 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6931 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6932 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6935 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6936 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6937 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6938 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6939 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6942 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6943 scm_internal_catch, except:
6945 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6946 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6947 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6948 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6951 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6952 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6953 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6955 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6956 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6957 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6958 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6961 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6962 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6963 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6965 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6966 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6967 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6968 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6969 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6971 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6972 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6973 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6975 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6976 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6977 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6979 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6980 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6982 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6983 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6984 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6987 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6988 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6989 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6990 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6991 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6992 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6993 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6996 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6997 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6999 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7000 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7001 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7002 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7003 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7006 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7007 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7009 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7010 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7013 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7014 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7016 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7019 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7020 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7021 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7022 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7023 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7024 given the following arguments:
7026 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7028 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7030 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7032 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7035 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7036 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7037 command-line arguments.
7039 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7040 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7041 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7042 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7043 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7044 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7047 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7050 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7051 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7053 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7054 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7056 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7057 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7058 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7059 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7061 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7062 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7064 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7065 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7066 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7067 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7069 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7070 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7072 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7073 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7075 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7077 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7078 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7079 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7082 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7083 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7085 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7086 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7091 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7094 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7096 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7097 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7098 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7099 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7101 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7103 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7105 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7106 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7107 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7108 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7109 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7110 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7111 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7112 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7113 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7114 for more information.
7116 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7117 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7119 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7120 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7121 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7122 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7123 following two lines at the top of the file:
7125 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7128 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7129 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7130 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7132 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7134 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7136 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7139 (display (car args))
7140 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7142 (loop (cdr args)))))
7145 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7146 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7147 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7148 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7149 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7150 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7154 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7157 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7160 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7162 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7163 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7164 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7165 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7166 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7169 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7170 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7171 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7172 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7173 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7176 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7179 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7180 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7181 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7184 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7185 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7186 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7188 to see a backtrace, and
7189 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7190 to see them by default.
7194 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7196 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7198 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7199 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7202 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7203 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7204 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7205 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7208 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7209 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7210 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7211 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7212 functions which inspired them.
7214 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7215 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7219 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7221 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7223 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7224 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7227 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7228 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7229 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7231 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7232 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7233 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7234 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7235 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7237 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7239 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7240 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7241 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7244 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7247 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7249 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7250 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7251 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7252 above should serve their purposes.
7254 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7255 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7256 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7257 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7259 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7262 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7263 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7264 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7265 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7267 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7268 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7269 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7270 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7272 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7273 for the `read' function.
7276 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7277 to that of `integer?'.
7279 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7280 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7282 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7283 it simply returns the object's property list.
7285 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7286 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7287 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7288 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7290 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7292 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7295 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7297 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7298 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7300 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7302 void (*main_func) (),
7305 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7306 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7307 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7308 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7309 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7311 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7312 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7313 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7314 know which arguments have been processed.
7316 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7317 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7318 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7319 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7320 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7322 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7323 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7324 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7325 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7326 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7327 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7328 people from making that mistake.
7330 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7331 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7333 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7335 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7339 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7342 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7343 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7344 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7345 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7348 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7349 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7350 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7351 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7354 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7355 have been added to the Guile library.
7357 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7358 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7359 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7362 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7363 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7364 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7366 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7367 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7368 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7369 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7370 argument from the list.
7373 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7376 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7377 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7379 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7380 to a Scheme port object.
7382 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7383 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7388 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7390 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7391 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7392 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7393 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7394 code as a special datatype.
7396 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7397 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7398 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7399 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7400 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7403 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7404 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7405 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7406 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7407 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7409 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7412 Copyright information:
7414 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7416 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7417 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7418 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7419 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7421 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7422 of this document, or of portions of it,
7423 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7424 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7429 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"