1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
13 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
14 the the-last-stack fluid for the debugger to inspect or in able to
17 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
19 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
20 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
21 to be named `and-let*', of course.
23 On systems that support it, there is also a compatability module named
24 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
26 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
31 (oop goops active-slot)
32 (oop goops composite-slot)
34 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
35 integrated into Guile.
39 (use-modules (oop goops))
41 access GOOPS bindings.
43 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
47 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
51 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
55 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
56 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
57 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
59 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
60 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
63 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
66 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
68 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
69 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
73 Asking for the type of an object
75 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
76 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
77 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
78 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
80 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
82 See further in the GOOPS tutorial available in the guile-doc
83 distribution in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
85 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
87 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
88 in the default environment:
90 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
93 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
94 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
96 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
98 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
101 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
102 can be used for similar functionality.
104 ** New module (ice-9 match)
106 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
108 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
112 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
113 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
115 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
116 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
118 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
120 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
122 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
124 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
125 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
127 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
131 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
132 (define m (make-safe-module))
133 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
134 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
135 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
137 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
139 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
141 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
142 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
143 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
144 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
147 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
148 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
149 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
150 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
151 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
152 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
153 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
154 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
155 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
156 one eval to the next.
158 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
159 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
160 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
161 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
162 subforms are at the top-level as well.
164 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
165 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
166 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
167 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
168 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
169 used in a lexical environment.
171 ** `port-for-each' makes an additional guarantee.
173 From the docstring: @var{proc} is applied exactly once to every port
174 that exists in the system at the time @var{port-for-each} is invoked.
175 Changes to the port table while @var{port-for-each} is running have no
176 effect as far as @var{port-for-each} is concerned.
178 This guarantee is important to make (ice-9 popen) work reliable.
180 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
182 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
183 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
184 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
186 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
188 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
189 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
190 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
192 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
193 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
194 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
195 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
197 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
199 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
200 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
202 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
203 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
204 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
205 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
206 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
209 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
210 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
211 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
212 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
213 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
214 successful and #f if it wasn't.
216 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
217 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
218 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
219 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
220 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
222 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
223 objects are usually permanent.
225 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
226 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
228 ** New function `make-object-property'
230 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
231 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
235 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
236 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
240 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
241 source properties eventually.
243 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
245 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
246 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
247 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
249 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
250 will be removed in the next release.
252 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
254 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
255 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
257 (scheme-report-environment 5)
259 (interaction-environment)
265 ** New define-module option: pure
267 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
272 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
275 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
277 Export names NAME1 ...
279 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
280 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
286 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
289 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
294 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
296 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
298 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
299 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
301 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
303 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
306 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
308 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
310 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
312 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
313 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
314 large strings. It will:
316 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
317 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
318 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
320 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
322 * read any characters that are currently available, without
323 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
325 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
326 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
328 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
329 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
331 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
332 are immediately available.
334 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
337 ** New function: port? X
339 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
340 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
342 ** New function: file-port?
344 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
346 ** New function: port-for-each proc
348 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
349 return value is unspecified.
351 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
353 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
354 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
355 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
356 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
357 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
360 ** New function: close-fdes fd
362 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
363 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
364 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
365 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
368 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except. This was intended for closing
369 ports in a child process after a fork, but it has the undesirable side
370 effect of flushing buffers. port-for-each is more flexible.
372 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
373 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
374 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
376 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
378 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
380 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
382 * Changes to the gh_ interface
384 * Changes to the scm_ interface
386 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
388 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
389 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
390 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
392 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
394 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
396 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
397 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
398 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
401 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
403 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
405 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
406 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
408 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
410 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
411 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
412 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
413 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
415 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
416 scm_primitive_property_ref
417 scm_primitive_property_set_x
418 scm_primitive_property_del_x
420 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
421 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
423 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
425 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
426 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
427 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
428 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
430 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
432 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
433 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
434 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
435 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
436 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
437 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
438 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
440 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
441 scm_remember_upto_here
443 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
445 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
447 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
448 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
450 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
452 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
453 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
454 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
455 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
456 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
457 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
459 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
461 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
463 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
464 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
465 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
467 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
469 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
470 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
471 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
473 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
475 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
476 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
479 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
482 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
483 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
486 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
488 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
490 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
492 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
494 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
496 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
498 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
499 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
500 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
501 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
502 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
503 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
504 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
505 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
506 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
507 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
508 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
509 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA
511 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
512 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
513 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
514 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
515 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
516 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
517 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
518 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
519 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
520 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
521 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
522 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
523 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
524 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
525 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
526 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
527 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
528 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
529 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
530 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
531 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
532 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
533 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
534 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
535 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
537 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
539 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
541 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
542 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
544 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
546 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
548 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
550 Use scm_string_hash instead.
552 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
554 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
556 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
558 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
560 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
562 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
564 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
567 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
568 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
570 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
572 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
574 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
576 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
579 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
581 * Changes to the distribution
583 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
585 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
586 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
587 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
588 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
589 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
590 obtain these programs.
591 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
592 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
594 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
595 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
596 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
597 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
598 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
600 However, this approach means that minor differences between
601 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
602 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
603 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
607 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
610 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
611 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
612 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
613 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
615 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
617 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
619 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
620 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
622 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
623 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
625 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
626 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
628 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
629 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
630 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
631 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
633 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
635 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
639 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
640 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
642 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
644 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
645 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
647 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
648 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
649 number of objects of that kind.
651 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
653 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
654 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
655 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
656 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
657 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
659 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
661 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
663 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
665 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
668 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
670 ** New command line option --debug
672 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
674 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
678 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
679 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
680 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
681 (help) gives this text
683 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
684 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
686 Examples: (help help)
688 (help "output-string")
690 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
692 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
694 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
695 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
698 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
699 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
700 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
703 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
704 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
705 use absolute filenames when possible.
707 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
708 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
709 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
712 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
714 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
715 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
716 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
717 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
719 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
721 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
723 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
724 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
725 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
727 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
728 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
729 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
731 (read-enable 'positions)
732 (debug-enable 'debug)
734 ** Backtraces in scripts
736 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
740 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
742 at the top of the script.
744 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
745 The second enables backtraces.)
747 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
749 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
750 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
751 substantially faster than before.
753 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
754 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
756 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
757 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
759 ** gc-thunk is deprecated
761 gc-thunk will be removed in next release of Guile. It has been
762 replaced by after-gc-hook.
764 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
766 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
767 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
768 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
770 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
771 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
772 when this hook is run in the future.
774 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
775 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
777 ** Improvements to garbage collector
779 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
780 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
783 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
784 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
785 more and more memory for certain programs.)
787 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
788 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
790 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
791 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
793 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
794 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
795 in order not to need further allocation.)
797 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
800 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
801 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
802 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
803 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
805 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
807 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
810 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
812 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
815 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
816 GC in percent of total heap size
819 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
820 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
822 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
824 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
825 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
827 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
829 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
830 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
832 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
834 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
835 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
839 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
840 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
842 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
844 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
846 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
848 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
850 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
852 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
853 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
855 (simple-format port message . args)
856 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
857 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
858 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
859 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
860 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
861 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
862 Does not add a trailing newline."
864 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
866 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
867 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
869 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
870 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
874 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
876 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
878 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
879 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
881 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
882 is returned as result.
884 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
886 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
888 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
890 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
891 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
894 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
896 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
898 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
899 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
901 * Changes to the gh_ interface
903 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
905 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
907 * Changes to the scm_ interface
909 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
911 Thanks to Greg Badros!
913 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
915 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
916 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
917 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
919 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
922 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
924 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
925 the readability of argument checking.
927 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
929 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
931 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
933 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
934 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
935 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
936 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
937 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
938 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
939 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
941 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
943 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
945 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
946 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
948 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
950 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
951 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
954 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
956 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
957 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
958 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
960 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
961 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
962 implementation with gmp in the future.
964 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
965 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
966 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
968 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
969 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
970 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
971 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
972 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
973 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
974 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
976 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
977 scm_end_input (object);
978 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
979 ptob->flush (object);
981 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
982 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
985 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
987 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
989 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
990 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
991 removed in a future version.
993 ** The format of error message strings has changed
995 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
996 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
997 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
998 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1000 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1001 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1003 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1006 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1008 in your configure.in.
1010 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1015 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1021 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1023 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1027 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1028 (define make-message string-append)
1030 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1032 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1036 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1041 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1045 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1047 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1048 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1050 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1052 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1053 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1054 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1055 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1056 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1057 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1059 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1060 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1061 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1063 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1064 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1065 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1068 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1069 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1070 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1071 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1072 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1074 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1075 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1076 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1077 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1078 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1079 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1080 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1082 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1084 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1085 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1086 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1088 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1089 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1090 KEY in the calling thread.
1092 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1093 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1094 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1095 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1096 associated with the key.
1098 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1100 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1101 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1103 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1105 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1106 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1107 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1109 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1111 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1112 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1114 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1116 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1118 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1119 returned is undefined.
1121 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1122 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1123 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1125 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1126 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1127 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1129 ** New C level GC hooks
1131 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1133 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1136 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1137 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1138 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1140 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1141 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1142 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1144 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1145 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1148 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1150 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1151 allocation parameters
1153 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1154 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1155 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1159 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1160 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1161 scm_default_max_segment_size
1163 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1165 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1166 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1168 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1170 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1171 object and count on the object being protected until
1172 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1174 The functions also have better time complexity.
1176 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1177 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1178 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1179 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1180 are no longer needed.
1182 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1184 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1185 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1186 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1187 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1189 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1191 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1193 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1195 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1196 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1197 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1198 until this issue has been settled.
1200 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1202 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1204 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1207 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1209 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1211 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1212 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1213 descriptors were checked.
1215 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1216 atomically written to a pipe.
1218 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1219 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1220 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1221 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1222 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1223 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1224 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1227 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1228 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1229 is changed without calling tzset.
1231 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1233 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1234 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1235 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1237 (define write-network-long
1238 (lambda (value port)
1239 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1240 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1241 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1243 (define read-network-long
1245 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1246 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1247 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1249 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1250 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1252 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1253 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1254 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1255 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1257 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1258 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1259 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1260 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1264 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1266 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1270 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1271 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1272 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1278 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1279 for a description of available commands.
1281 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1282 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1283 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1285 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1287 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1288 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1290 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1292 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1294 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1295 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1296 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1297 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1298 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1299 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1302 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1304 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1305 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1306 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1307 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1309 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1310 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1312 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1314 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1316 ** Readline support has changed again.
1318 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1319 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1320 to activate readline is now
1322 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1325 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1327 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1328 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1329 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1332 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1333 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1334 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1337 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1338 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1339 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1340 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1341 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1342 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1344 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1345 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1347 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1349 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1350 object it receives is the same string passed to
1351 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1352 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1353 string, not the suffix.
1355 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1356 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1357 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1359 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1361 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1362 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1363 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1364 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1367 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1369 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1371 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1372 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1373 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1374 appear from left to right.
1376 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1379 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1381 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1382 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1384 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1388 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1390 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1392 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1394 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1395 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1396 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1398 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1400 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1402 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1404 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1407 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1409 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1410 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1411 mentioning it here anyway.
1413 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1415 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1416 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1417 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1418 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1421 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1423 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1425 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1427 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1428 otherwise return #f.
1430 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1432 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1433 returned by `opendir'.
1435 ** New function: using-readline?
1437 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1439 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1441 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1442 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1444 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1446 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1448 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1449 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1450 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1452 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1454 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1455 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1457 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1459 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1460 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1461 documentation slots are not yet used.
1463 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1465 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1466 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1467 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1472 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1473 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1474 (string-append x y))
1476 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1477 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1479 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1480 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1481 be made in a clean way.]
1483 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1485 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1487 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1489 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1490 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1492 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1494 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1496 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1498 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1500 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1501 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1502 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1503 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1506 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1508 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1510 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1512 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1514 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1515 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1517 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1519 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1521 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1523 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1525 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1526 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1527 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1528 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1529 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1530 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1532 This should not make any difference for most users.
1534 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1536 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1537 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1539 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1541 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1542 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1543 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1544 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1545 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1547 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1549 It is now replaced by:
1551 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1553 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1554 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1556 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1558 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1559 This might change when we get the new module system.
1561 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1565 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1567 * Changes to mailing lists
1569 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1571 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1574 * Changes to the distribution
1576 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1578 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1579 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1580 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1581 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1582 you explicitly specify it.
1584 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1585 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1586 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1587 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1588 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1591 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1592 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1593 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1594 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1596 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1597 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1598 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1601 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1603 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1606 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1608 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1610 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1611 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1612 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1613 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1615 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1616 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1619 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1621 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
1622 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
1623 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
1624 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
1625 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
1626 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
1627 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
1628 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
1640 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
1641 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
1642 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
1643 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
1644 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
1649 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
1650 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
1658 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
1663 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
1664 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
1667 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
1668 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
1669 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
1670 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
1672 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
1674 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
1676 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
1677 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
1679 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
1681 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
1683 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
1684 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
1686 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
1689 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
1691 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
1693 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
1695 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
1697 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
1699 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
1701 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
1702 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
1703 when the hook was created.
1705 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
1706 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
1707 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
1708 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
1709 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
1710 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
1711 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
1712 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
1713 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
1715 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
1716 the dlopen family of functions.
1718 ** New function `provided?'
1720 - Function: provided? FEATURE
1721 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
1722 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
1723 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
1725 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
1727 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
1728 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
1729 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
1730 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1733 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1734 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
1735 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
1736 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
1738 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
1739 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
1740 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
1743 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
1744 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
1745 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
1746 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
1747 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
1748 but with the flag set.
1750 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
1752 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
1753 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
1755 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
1756 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
1757 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
1758 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
1759 available Scheme format implementations.
1761 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
1762 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
1763 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
1764 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
1765 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
1766 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
1767 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
1768 output is to the current error port if available by the
1769 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
1772 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
1773 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
1774 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
1775 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
1776 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
1777 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
1778 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
1779 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
1781 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
1782 be executed at a time.
1785 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
1787 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
1788 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
1789 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
1791 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
1792 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
1793 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
1794 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
1795 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
1796 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
1797 general form of a directive is:
1799 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
1801 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
1803 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
1805 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
1806 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
1807 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
1810 Any (print as `display' does).
1814 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
1818 S-expression (print as `write' does).
1822 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
1828 print number sign always.
1831 print comma separated.
1833 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
1839 print number sign always.
1842 print comma separated.
1844 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
1850 print number sign always.
1853 print comma separated.
1855 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
1861 print number sign always.
1864 print comma separated.
1866 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
1871 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
1875 print a number as a Roman numeral.
1878 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
1881 print a number as an ordinal English number.
1884 print a number as a cardinal English number.
1889 prints `y' and `ies'.
1892 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1895 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1900 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
1904 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
1907 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
1908 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
1910 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1913 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
1914 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
1916 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1919 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
1921 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
1923 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1926 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
1928 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
1930 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1933 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
1936 The sign appears before the padding.
1944 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
1946 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
1951 print N page separators.
1961 newline is ignored, white space left.
1964 newline is left, white space ignored.
1969 relative tabulation.
1975 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
1977 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
1980 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
1982 converts by `string-capitalize'.
1985 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
1988 converts by `string-upcase'.
1991 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
1993 jumps N arguments forward.
1996 jumps 1 argument backward.
1999 jumps N arguments backward.
2002 jumps to the 0th argument.
2005 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2007 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2008 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2010 take argument from N.
2013 true test conditional.
2016 if-else-then conditional.
2022 default clause follows.
2025 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2027 at most N iterations.
2030 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2033 args from the rest of arguments.
2036 args from the rest args (lists).
2047 aborts if N <= M <= K
2049 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2052 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2055 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2061 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2063 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2065 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2066 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2067 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2068 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2069 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2070 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2074 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2078 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2084 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2087 Print a `#\space' character
2089 print N `#\space' characters.
2092 Print a `#\tab' character
2094 print N `#\tab' characters.
2097 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2098 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2099 must be a positive decimal number.
2102 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2103 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2104 be processed by `read'.
2107 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2108 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2109 be processed by `read'.
2112 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2115 prints format version.
2118 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2119 and format it accordingly.
2121 *** Configuration Variables
2123 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2124 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2125 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2126 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2129 format:symbol-case-conv
2130 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2131 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2132 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2133 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2134 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2136 format:iobj-case-conv
2137 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2138 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2141 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2144 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2150 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2151 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2152 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2153 `format' padding style.
2156 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2157 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2158 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2159 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2163 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2164 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2165 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2168 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2169 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2170 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2171 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2172 parameters or modifiers)).
2175 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2177 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2179 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2180 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2182 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2183 string-downcase! functions.
2185 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2186 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2188 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2191 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2194 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2195 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2197 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2199 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2200 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2202 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2203 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2204 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2205 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2206 would if STRING were input.
2208 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2210 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2211 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2212 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2213 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2216 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2218 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2219 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2222 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2224 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2225 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2227 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2228 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2230 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2231 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2232 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2233 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2235 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2236 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2238 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2239 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2240 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2242 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2243 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2245 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2246 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2247 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2248 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2249 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2251 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2252 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2253 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2254 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2255 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2256 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2258 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2259 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2260 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2263 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2264 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2265 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2266 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2267 the following grammar:
2268 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2269 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2270 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2271 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2272 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2273 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2274 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2275 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2276 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2277 last option in its combination)
2279 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2280 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2281 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2282 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2284 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2285 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2286 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2288 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2289 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2290 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2292 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2293 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2294 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2295 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2296 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2297 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2298 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2299 ordinary argument strings.
2301 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2302 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2303 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2304 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2306 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2307 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2309 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2310 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2311 - a required option is omitted
2312 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2313 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2314 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2315 - an option predicate fails
2320 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2323 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2324 (verbose (required? #f)
2327 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2328 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2329 (predicate ,string?))))
2331 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2332 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2334 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2335 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2336 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2337 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2340 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2342 It will be removed in a few releases.
2344 ** New syntax: lambda*
2345 ** New syntax: define*
2346 ** New syntax: define*-public
2347 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2348 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2349 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2351 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2352 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2353 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2354 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2355 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2357 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2358 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2359 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2361 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2363 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2364 and examples for `lambda*':
2367 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2369 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2370 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2371 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2372 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2373 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2374 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2375 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2376 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2378 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2380 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2381 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2382 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2383 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2385 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2386 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2387 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2388 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2389 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2390 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2391 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2392 and until the procedure is called.
2394 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2396 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2397 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2398 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2399 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2400 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2401 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2402 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2403 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2404 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2405 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2407 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2408 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2409 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2410 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2413 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2415 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2416 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2417 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2418 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2420 ** New syntax: and-let*
2421 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2423 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2424 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2425 (<variable> <expression>)
2428 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2429 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2430 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2433 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2434 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2435 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2436 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2437 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2438 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2439 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2441 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2442 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2443 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2444 shadow earlier bindings.
2446 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2448 ** New sorting functions
2450 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2451 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2452 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2453 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2455 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2456 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2459 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2460 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2461 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2463 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2464 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2465 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2466 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2468 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2469 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2470 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2471 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2472 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2475 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2476 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2477 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2478 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2479 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2480 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2482 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2483 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2484 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2486 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2487 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2488 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2491 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2492 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2493 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2495 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2496 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2498 ** New built-in random number support
2500 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2501 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2502 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2503 returned have a uniform distribution.
2505 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2506 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2507 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2508 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2509 effect of the `random' operation.
2511 *** New variable: *random-state*
2512 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2513 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2514 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2515 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2516 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2519 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2520 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2521 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2522 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2523 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2525 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2526 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2527 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2528 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2529 initialized using SEED.
2531 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2532 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2533 range between 0 and 1.
2535 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2536 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2537 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2538 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2539 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2540 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2541 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2543 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2544 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2545 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2546 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2547 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2548 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2550 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2551 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2552 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2553 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2555 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2556 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2557 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2558 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2560 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2561 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2562 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2564 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2566 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2569 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2570 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2573 ** New function: make-guardian
2574 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2575 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2576 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2577 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2578 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2580 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2581 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2582 one object if at all.
2584 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2585 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2586 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2588 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2589 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2590 read again in last-in first-out order.
2592 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2593 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2595 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2597 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2598 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2599 file position is used.
2601 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2602 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2603 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2605 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2606 redefined using seek.
2608 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2609 size is not supplied.
2611 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2612 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2614 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2615 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2617 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2619 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2620 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2621 and returns the contents as a single string.
2623 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
2624 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
2625 lists in serial order.
2627 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
2628 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
2629 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
2631 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
2632 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
2633 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
2634 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
2636 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
2637 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
2638 and #f if an error occured.
2640 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
2642 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
2643 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
2644 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
2645 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
2647 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
2649 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
2652 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
2654 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
2657 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2661 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
2662 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
2664 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
2665 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
2669 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2671 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
2673 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2674 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2676 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2678 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
2679 might change when we get the new module system.
2681 ** The smob interface
2683 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
2684 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
2686 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
2688 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
2692 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
2693 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
2694 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
2695 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
2696 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
2697 will be freed by the default free function.
2699 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2700 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
2701 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2702 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2704 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2705 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
2706 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2707 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2709 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
2711 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
2712 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
2716 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
2717 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2718 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2720 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
2721 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
2722 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2723 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2725 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
2726 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
2727 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
2729 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
2730 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
2731 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
2732 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
2734 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
2735 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
2736 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
2738 *** scm_newptob has been removed
2742 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
2744 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
2745 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
2746 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
2748 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
2749 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
2750 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
2752 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
2753 a string port's buffer.
2755 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
2756 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
2757 function pointers which together define the current random number
2758 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
2759 number library functions.
2761 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
2764 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
2765 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
2768 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
2769 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2771 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
2772 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
2774 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
2775 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
2778 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
2779 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
2780 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
2781 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
2783 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
2784 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
2785 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
2786 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
2787 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
2788 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
2789 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
2791 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
2792 by libguile and the application.
2794 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2795 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2796 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
2797 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
2799 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
2800 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
2802 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2803 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
2804 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
2806 ** Random number library functions
2807 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
2808 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
2809 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
2811 The default random state is stored in:
2813 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
2814 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
2815 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
2820 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
2822 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
2823 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
2824 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
2825 isn't a random state.
2827 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
2828 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
2830 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
2831 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
2832 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
2833 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
2835 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2836 Return 32 random bits.
2838 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2839 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
2841 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2842 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
2844 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2845 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
2847 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
2848 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2850 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
2851 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2852 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
2856 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
2858 * Changes to the distribution
2860 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
2861 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
2862 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
2865 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
2866 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
2867 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
2869 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
2870 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
2871 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
2872 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
2875 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
2876 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
2877 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
2879 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2881 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
2883 *** Function: batch-mode?
2885 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
2888 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
2890 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
2891 case has not been implemented.
2893 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
2894 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
2895 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
2898 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
2899 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
2901 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
2903 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
2905 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
2907 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
2908 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
2911 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
2912 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
2913 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
2914 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
2917 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
2919 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
2920 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
2921 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
2922 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
2923 find those libraries.
2925 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
2926 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
2929 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
2931 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
2932 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
2933 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
2934 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
2936 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
2937 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
2938 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
2942 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
2944 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
2945 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
2946 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
2949 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
2950 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
2951 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
2952 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
2954 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
2955 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
2958 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
2959 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
2960 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
2961 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
2962 compiler where to find the libraries.
2964 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
2965 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
2966 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
2968 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
2969 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
2970 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
2971 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
2972 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
2976 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2978 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
2979 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
2980 internationalization support.
2982 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
2983 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
2984 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
2985 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
2986 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
2988 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
2989 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
2990 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
2991 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
2992 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
2994 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
2995 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
2996 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
2997 any GNU mirror site.
2999 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3001 ** New function: add-history STRING
3002 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3003 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3004 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3006 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3008 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3009 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3010 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3013 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3014 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3015 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3017 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3019 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3022 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3023 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3026 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3027 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3028 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3029 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3030 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3031 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3033 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3034 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3035 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3036 of the form mentioned above.
3038 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3039 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3040 returned in the special `rest' list.
3042 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3043 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3045 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3047 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3049 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3051 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3052 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3053 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3054 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3055 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3056 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3057 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3058 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3061 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3063 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3065 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3066 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3069 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3070 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3071 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3075 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3076 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3077 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3078 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3079 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3080 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3081 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3082 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3085 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3087 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3088 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3089 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3091 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3093 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3094 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3096 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3097 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3098 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3100 Why do we have this function?
3101 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3102 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3103 primitive, and display it differently, and
3104 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3105 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3108 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3109 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3112 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3113 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3114 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3115 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3117 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3118 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3121 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3122 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3124 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3126 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3127 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3128 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3129 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3130 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3131 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3132 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3135 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3137 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3138 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3140 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3141 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3142 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3143 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3144 properly continue the print chain.
3146 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3147 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3148 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3149 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3150 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3151 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3152 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3153 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3155 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3156 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3157 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3158 safest to not check for these pairs.
3160 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3161 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3162 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3163 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3165 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3167 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3168 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3170 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3172 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3174 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3175 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3176 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3178 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3179 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3180 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3182 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3183 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3184 the following functions and macros:
3186 Function: make-fluid
3188 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3189 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3190 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3191 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3192 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3194 Function: fluid? OBJ
3196 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3198 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3199 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3201 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3202 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3204 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3206 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3207 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3208 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3209 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3210 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3211 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3212 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3214 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3216 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3217 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3218 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3219 should evaluate to a fluid.
3221 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3223 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3224 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3225 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3226 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3227 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3229 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3232 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3234 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3236 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3238 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3241 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3242 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3243 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3244 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3245 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3248 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3249 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3250 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3252 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3253 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3254 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3256 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3257 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3258 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3259 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3261 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3262 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3263 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3264 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3266 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3267 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3268 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3269 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3271 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3272 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3273 their revealed counts set to zero.
3275 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3276 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3278 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3279 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3281 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3282 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3284 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3285 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3286 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3288 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3289 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3290 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3292 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3293 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3294 default environment inherited by child processes.
3296 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3297 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3298 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3300 The return value is unspecified.
3302 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3303 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3304 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3305 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3306 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3308 The return value is unspecified.
3310 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3311 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3319 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3320 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3323 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3326 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3327 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3328 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3330 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3331 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3332 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3333 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3336 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3337 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3339 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3340 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3341 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3342 the `environ' procedure.
3344 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3345 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3348 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3349 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3351 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3352 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3353 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3354 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3356 *** procedure: times
3357 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3358 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3359 return a selected component:
3362 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3366 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3369 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3373 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3374 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3378 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3379 terminated child processes.
3381 ** Removed: list-length
3382 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3383 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3385 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3387 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3389 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3391 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3392 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3393 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3394 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3396 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3397 extra complexity it introduces.
3399 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3400 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3402 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3403 variable to any non-empty value.
3405 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3406 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3408 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3410 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3411 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3413 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3415 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3416 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3418 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3420 ** vector handling routines
3422 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3423 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3424 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3425 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3426 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3428 ** pair and list routines
3430 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3433 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3435 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3438 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3440 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3442 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3443 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3444 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3445 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3446 site-specific initialization code.
3448 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3449 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3450 initialization processes.
3452 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3453 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3454 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3455 initialized properly.
3457 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3458 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3459 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3461 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3462 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3463 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3464 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3465 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3467 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3469 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3470 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3471 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3472 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3473 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3475 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3476 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3477 which look like this:
3480 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3482 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3483 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3486 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3487 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3490 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3492 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3493 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3494 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3496 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3497 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3498 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3499 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3500 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3502 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3503 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3505 int (*free) (SCM port);
3506 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3507 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3508 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3512 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3513 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3514 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3516 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3519 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3520 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3521 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3523 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3524 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3525 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3528 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3532 struct timeval *timeout);
3534 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3535 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3536 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3537 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3538 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3539 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3541 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3542 scm_catch_body_t body,
3544 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3547 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3548 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3549 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3550 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3551 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3552 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3554 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3556 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3559 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3560 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3561 spawning threads from application C code.
3563 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3564 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3565 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3566 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3567 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3568 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3570 ** Removed functions:
3572 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3573 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3575 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3577 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3578 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3580 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3582 ** mbstrings are now removed
3584 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3585 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3587 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3589 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3590 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3591 their new names and arguments:
3593 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3594 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3595 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3596 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3599 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3601 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3603 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3606 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3608 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3609 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3610 pass a #f arg to catch.
3612 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3614 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3615 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3618 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3619 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3620 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3621 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
3622 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
3623 reclaim its storage.
3625 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
3626 worrying that some other function you call will call
3627 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
3628 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
3629 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
3630 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
3633 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
3635 * Changes to the distribution
3637 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
3638 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
3641 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
3642 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
3644 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3645 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3647 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
3649 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
3650 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
3651 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
3653 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3655 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
3656 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
3657 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
3658 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
3659 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
3660 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
3662 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
3663 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
3664 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
3667 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
3668 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
3669 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
3670 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
3672 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
3673 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
3674 libraries to your link command:
3676 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
3677 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
3678 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
3679 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
3681 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
3682 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
3683 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
3685 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3687 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
3688 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
3691 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
3693 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
3694 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
3695 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
3696 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
3697 searched is system dependent.
3699 (dynamic-object? VAL)
3701 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
3703 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
3705 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
3706 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
3708 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3710 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
3711 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
3712 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
3713 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
3714 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
3717 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3719 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
3720 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
3721 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
3722 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
3723 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
3725 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
3727 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
3728 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
3730 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
3732 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
3733 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
3734 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
3737 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
3739 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
3740 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
3741 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
3742 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
3744 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
3745 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
3747 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
3749 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
3750 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
3752 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
3754 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
3755 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
3763 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
3765 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
3766 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
3767 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
3768 a more informative way.
3770 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
3771 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
3772 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
3773 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
3774 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
3775 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
3777 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
3778 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
3781 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
3782 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
3783 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
3786 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
3787 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
3788 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
3789 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
3790 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
3791 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
3793 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
3794 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
3795 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
3796 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
3799 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
3800 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
3801 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
3802 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
3803 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
3804 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
3806 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
3807 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
3808 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
3809 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
3810 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
3812 *** regexp functions
3814 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
3815 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
3816 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
3818 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
3819 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
3820 with SCSH regular expressions.
3822 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
3823 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
3824 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
3825 position of STR at which to begin matching.
3827 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
3828 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
3829 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
3830 `string-match' returns `#f'.
3832 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
3833 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
3834 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
3835 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
3836 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
3837 match strings against the compiled regexp.
3839 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
3840 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
3841 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
3842 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
3843 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
3845 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3847 **** Constant: regexp/extended
3848 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
3849 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
3850 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
3852 **** Constant: regexp/icase
3853 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
3854 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
3856 **** Constant: regexp/newline
3857 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
3859 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
3862 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
3863 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3864 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
3866 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
3867 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3868 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
3870 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
3871 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
3872 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
3873 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
3874 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
3877 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3879 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
3880 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
3881 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
3882 used when different portions of a string are passed to
3883 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
3884 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
3886 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
3887 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
3888 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
3890 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
3891 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
3894 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
3895 and replace them with the contents of another string.
3897 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
3898 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
3899 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
3900 may be one of the following arguments:
3902 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
3904 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
3906 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
3907 the regexp match is written.
3909 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
3910 following the regexp match is written.
3912 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
3913 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
3916 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
3917 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
3918 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
3919 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
3920 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
3921 which should be matched against this regular expression.
3923 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
3926 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
3927 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
3928 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
3929 written out to PORT.
3931 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
3932 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
3933 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
3934 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
3935 will return after processing a single match.
3937 *** Match Structures
3939 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
3940 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
3941 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
3942 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
3943 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
3944 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
3947 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
3948 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
3949 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
3950 information about the original target string that was matched against a
3951 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
3953 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
3954 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
3955 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
3957 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
3958 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
3959 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
3960 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
3961 number N did not match, return `#f'.
3963 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
3964 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
3966 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
3967 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
3969 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
3970 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
3972 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
3973 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
3975 **** Function: match:count MATCH
3976 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
3977 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
3978 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
3980 **** Function: match:string MATCH
3981 Return the original TARGET string.
3983 *** Backslash Escapes
3985 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
3986 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
3987 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
3988 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
3989 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
3990 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
3992 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
3993 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
3994 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
3995 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
3996 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
3997 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
3998 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
3999 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4001 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4002 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4003 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4004 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4005 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4006 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4007 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4009 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4010 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4011 return the resulting string.
4013 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4014 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4015 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4016 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4017 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4018 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4019 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4020 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4021 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4022 translated to the single character `*'.
4024 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4025 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4026 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4027 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4028 consecutive backslashes:
4030 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4032 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4033 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4034 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4036 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4037 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4038 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4039 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4040 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4041 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4043 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4045 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4046 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4047 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4048 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4049 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4050 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4051 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4052 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4053 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4054 cumbersome escape syntax.
4056 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4058 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4060 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4062 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4065 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4067 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4069 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4072 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4073 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4074 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4075 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4076 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4078 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4079 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4080 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4081 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4082 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4083 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4084 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4087 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4088 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4089 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4092 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4093 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4095 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4096 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4097 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4098 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4099 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4100 installed, you can say:
4102 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4105 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4107 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4108 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4109 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4110 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4111 new dynamic roots and threads.
4114 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4116 * Changes to the distribution.
4118 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4120 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4121 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4122 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4123 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4124 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4125 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4126 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4127 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4129 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4132 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4133 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4138 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4140 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4141 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4143 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4144 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4145 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4146 the (command-line) function.
4147 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4148 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4149 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4151 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4152 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4153 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4154 command line arguments
4155 -ds do -s script at this point
4156 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4157 -h, --help display this help and exit
4158 -v, --version display version information and exit
4159 \ read arguments from following script lines
4161 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4162 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4164 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4167 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4171 (main (command-line))
4173 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4175 ekko a speckled gecko
4177 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4178 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4179 following list of command-line arguments:
4181 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4183 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4184 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4185 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4186 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4187 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4189 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4191 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4193 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4194 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4197 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4198 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4199 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4200 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4202 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4203 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4204 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4205 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4207 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4211 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4215 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4217 ekko a speckled gecko
4219 Unix expands this into
4221 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4223 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4224 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4226 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4228 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4229 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4231 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4232 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4233 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4234 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4235 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4236 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4237 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4238 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4239 it only terminates the argument list.)
4240 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4241 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4242 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4243 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4244 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4245 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4246 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4247 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4249 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4251 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4252 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4253 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4254 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4255 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4257 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4258 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4259 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4261 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4263 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4264 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4265 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4266 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4269 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4270 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4271 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4273 * Changes to Scheme functions
4275 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4276 and disabled by default.
4278 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4279 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4280 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4281 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4283 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4285 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4287 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4288 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4290 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4291 (read-set! keywords #f)
4293 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4294 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4295 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4298 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4299 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4300 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4303 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4304 support for Scheme functions.
4306 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4307 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4308 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4309 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4312 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4313 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4314 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4317 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4318 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4319 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4322 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4323 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4324 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4325 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4326 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4327 display the result as a prompt.
4328 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4330 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4331 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4332 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4335 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4336 procedure of zero arguments.
4338 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4339 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4340 argument is bound in the current module.
4342 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4343 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4344 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4345 public bindings into the current module.
4347 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4348 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4350 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4351 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4353 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4354 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4356 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4357 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4359 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4360 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4362 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4363 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4364 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4365 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4366 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4368 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4369 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4370 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4371 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4373 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4376 ** Changes to I/O functions
4378 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4379 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4380 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4382 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4383 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4384 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4386 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4387 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4389 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4390 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4391 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4392 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4394 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4396 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4397 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4399 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4400 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4401 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4402 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4403 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4406 'trim omit delimiter from result
4407 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4408 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4409 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4411 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4413 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4414 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4416 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4417 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4418 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4419 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4420 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4422 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4423 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4424 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4426 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4427 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4428 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4429 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4431 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4432 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4434 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4435 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4437 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4439 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4440 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4441 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4442 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4443 a delimiting character.
4444 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4446 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4447 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4448 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4449 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4450 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4451 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4453 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4454 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4456 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4457 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4458 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4460 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4461 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4462 the array to read and write.
4464 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4465 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4468 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4470 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4473 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4474 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4475 Values for COMMAND are:
4477 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4478 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4479 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4480 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4481 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4482 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4483 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4484 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4486 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4488 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4489 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4490 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4491 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4492 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4493 corresponding return set will be the same.
4495 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4498 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4499 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4500 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4501 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4502 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4503 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4504 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4505 special file being created.
4507 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4508 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4510 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4511 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4512 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4513 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4514 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4515 and originating address.
4517 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4518 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4519 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4521 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4524 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4525 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4528 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4529 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4530 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4531 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4532 this function returns #f.
4534 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4535 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4536 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4539 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4540 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4541 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4544 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4545 a valid STATUS value.
4547 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4549 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4550 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4552 Component Accessor Setter
4553 ========================= ============ ============
4554 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4555 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4556 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4557 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4558 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4559 year tm:year set-tm:year
4560 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4561 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4562 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4563 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4564 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4566 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4567 describing the host system:
4570 ============================================== ================
4571 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4572 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4573 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4574 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4575 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4577 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4578 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4579 system's user database:
4582 ====================== =================
4583 user name passwd:name
4584 user password passwd:passwd
4587 real name passwd:gecos
4588 home directory passwd:dir
4589 shell program passwd:shell
4591 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4592 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4593 system's group database:
4596 ======================= ============
4597 group name group:name
4598 group password group:passwd
4600 group members group:mem
4602 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4603 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4607 ========================= ===============
4608 official name of host hostent:name
4609 alias list hostent:aliases
4610 host address type hostent:addrtype
4611 length of address hostent:length
4612 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4614 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4615 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4619 ========================= ===============
4620 official name of net netent:name
4621 alias list netent:aliases
4622 net number type netent:addrtype
4623 net number netent:net
4625 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
4626 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
4630 ========================= ===============
4631 official protocol name protoent:name
4632 alias list protoent:aliases
4633 protocol number protoent:proto
4635 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
4636 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
4640 ========================= ===============
4641 official service name servent:name
4642 alias list servent:aliases
4643 port number servent:port
4644 protocol to use servent:proto
4646 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
4647 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
4650 ======================================== ===============
4651 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
4652 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
4653 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
4654 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
4656 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
4657 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
4658 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
4660 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
4661 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
4663 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
4664 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
4666 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
4667 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
4669 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
4671 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
4673 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
4674 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
4675 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
4677 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
4678 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
4679 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
4680 return the remaining characters as a string.
4682 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
4683 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
4684 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
4686 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
4688 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4690 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
4693 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
4696 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
4697 and returns the array
4699 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
4700 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
4701 the user to interpret the data both ways.
4703 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4705 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
4706 symbol's value from C code:
4708 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
4709 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
4710 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
4711 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
4713 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
4714 without assigning them a value.
4716 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
4717 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
4718 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
4720 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
4721 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
4722 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
4724 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
4725 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
4727 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
4728 doesn't actually care about that.
4730 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
4731 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
4732 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
4734 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
4735 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
4736 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
4737 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
4738 which we have just created and initialized.
4740 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
4741 should one occur. We call it like this:
4742 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
4744 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
4745 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
4746 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
4747 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
4748 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
4749 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
4752 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
4753 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
4754 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
4755 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
4756 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
4757 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
4758 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
4761 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
4762 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
4763 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
4764 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
4765 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
4768 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
4769 scm_internal_catch, except:
4771 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
4772 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
4773 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
4774 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
4777 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
4778 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
4779 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
4781 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
4782 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
4783 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
4784 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
4787 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
4788 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
4789 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
4791 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
4792 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
4793 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
4794 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
4795 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
4797 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
4798 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
4799 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
4801 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
4802 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
4803 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
4805 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
4806 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
4808 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
4809 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
4810 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
4813 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
4814 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
4815 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
4816 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
4817 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
4818 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
4819 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
4822 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
4823 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
4825 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
4826 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
4827 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
4828 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
4829 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
4832 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
4833 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
4835 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
4836 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
4839 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
4840 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
4842 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4845 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
4846 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
4847 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
4848 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
4849 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
4850 given the following arguments:
4852 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4854 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
4856 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
4858 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4861 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
4862 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
4863 command-line arguments.
4865 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
4866 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
4867 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
4868 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
4869 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
4870 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
4873 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4876 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
4877 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
4879 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
4880 rearranged slightly. They are now:
4882 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4883 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4884 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
4885 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
4887 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4888 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4890 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4891 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
4892 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4893 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
4895 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4896 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4898 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
4899 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
4901 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
4903 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
4904 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
4905 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
4908 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
4909 returns a port instead of an FD object.
4911 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
4912 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
4917 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
4920 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
4922 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
4923 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
4924 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
4925 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
4927 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
4929 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
4931 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
4932 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
4933 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
4934 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
4935 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
4936 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
4937 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
4938 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
4939 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
4940 for more information.
4942 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
4943 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
4945 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
4946 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
4947 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
4948 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
4949 following two lines at the top of the file:
4951 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4954 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
4955 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
4956 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
4958 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
4960 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4962 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
4965 (display (car args))
4966 (if (pair? (cdr args))
4968 (loop (cdr args)))))
4971 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
4972 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
4973 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
4974 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
4975 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
4976 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
4980 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
4983 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
4986 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
4988 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
4989 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
4990 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
4991 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
4992 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
4995 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
4996 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
4997 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
4998 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
4999 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5002 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5005 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5006 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5007 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5010 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5011 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5012 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5014 to see a backtrace, and
5015 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5016 to see them by default.
5020 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5022 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5024 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5025 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5028 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5029 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5030 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5031 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5034 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5035 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5036 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5037 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5038 functions which inspired them.
5040 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5041 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5045 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5047 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5049 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5050 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5053 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5054 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5055 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5057 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5058 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5059 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5060 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5061 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5063 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5065 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5066 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5067 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5070 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5073 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5075 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5076 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5077 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5078 above should serve their purposes.
5080 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5081 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5082 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5083 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5085 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5088 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5089 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5090 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5091 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5093 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5094 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5095 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5096 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5098 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5099 for the `read' function.
5102 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5103 to that of `integer?'.
5105 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5106 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5108 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5109 it simply returns the object's property list.
5111 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5112 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5113 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5114 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5116 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5118 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5121 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5123 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5124 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5126 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5128 void (*main_func) (),
5131 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5132 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5133 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5134 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5135 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5137 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5138 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5139 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5140 know which arguments have been processed.
5142 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5143 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5144 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5145 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5146 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5148 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5149 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5150 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5151 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5152 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5153 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5154 people from making that mistake.
5156 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5157 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5159 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5161 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5165 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5168 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5169 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5170 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5171 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5174 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5175 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5176 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5177 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5180 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5181 have been added to the Guile library.
5183 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5184 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5185 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5188 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5189 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5190 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5192 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5193 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5194 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5195 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5196 argument from the list.
5199 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5202 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5203 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5205 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5206 to a Scheme port object.
5208 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5209 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5214 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5216 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5217 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5218 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5219 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5220 code as a special datatype.
5222 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5223 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5224 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5225 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5226 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5229 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5230 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5231 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5232 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5233 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5235 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5238 Copyright information:
5240 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5242 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5243 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5244 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5245 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5247 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5248 of this document, or of portions of it,
5249 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5250 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5255 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"