1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 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 the stable branch:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** There is a new thread implementation option "null", which is also
14 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
15 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
16 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
17 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
18 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
21 When cooperative threading is not supported on your platform, you will
22 get the "null" threads instead.
24 The long term plan is to make the selection of a thread implementation
25 a run-time option, not a configure time option.
27 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
29 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
30 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
32 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
34 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
36 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
37 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
39 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
41 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
42 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
44 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
46 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
48 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
50 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
51 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
52 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
55 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
56 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
57 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
60 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
61 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
63 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
65 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
66 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
69 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
70 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
72 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
73 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
74 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
75 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
76 level for the current thread.
78 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
80 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
82 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
83 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
86 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
88 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
90 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
93 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
95 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
98 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
99 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
100 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
102 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
103 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
104 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
105 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
116 ERROR: Numerical overflow
118 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
121 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
123 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
124 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
125 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
136 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
138 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
139 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
140 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
142 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
145 ** pretty-print has more options.
147 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
148 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
149 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
151 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
153 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
154 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
155 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
157 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
159 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
160 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
162 ** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
164 Use `substring-move!' instead.
166 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
168 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
169 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
170 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
172 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
174 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
175 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
176 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
177 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
178 without the soft port blocking.
180 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
182 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
183 chapter in the reference manual.
185 * Changes to the C interface
187 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
189 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
190 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
191 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
193 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
194 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
196 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
198 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
200 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
201 function in the init section.
203 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
205 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
207 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
209 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
210 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
211 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
213 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
215 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
216 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
217 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
218 stays roughly constant.
220 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
221 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
222 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
223 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
224 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
227 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
228 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
229 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
230 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
232 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
234 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
236 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
238 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
239 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
240 initializes a new cell (see below).
242 ** New functions for memory management
244 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
245 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
246 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
247 cause aborts in long running programs.
249 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
250 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
252 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
253 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
254 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
255 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
256 details and for upgrading instructions.
258 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
259 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
260 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
262 ** New function: scm_str2string
264 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
267 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
269 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
270 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
271 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
272 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
273 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
275 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
276 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
277 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
279 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
280 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
282 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
284 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
285 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
286 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
287 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
289 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
291 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
294 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
296 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
298 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
300 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
301 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
302 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
304 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
305 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
306 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
307 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
308 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
309 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
310 gc-protected location.
312 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
314 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
315 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
318 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
320 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
321 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
323 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
325 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
326 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
328 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify,
329 s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
330 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated,
331 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND,
332 SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
333 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_substring_move_left_x, scm_substring_move_right_x,
334 long_long, ulong_long, scm_sizet, SCM_WNA, SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC,
335 SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL,
336 SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL,
337 SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, moddata, registered_mods,
338 scm_register_module_xxx, scm_registered_modules,
339 scm_clear_registered_modules, scm_wta, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
340 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
341 scm_eval2, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR, SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR,
342 SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK,
343 SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, scm_remember, scm_protect_object,
344 scm_unprotect_object, root_module_lookup_closure, scm_sym_app,
345 scm_sym_modules, module_prefix, make_modules_in_var,
346 beautify_user_module_x_var, try_module_autoload_var, scm_module_full_name,
347 scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module, scm_ensure_user_module,
348 scm_load_scheme_module, scm_port, scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_port_rw_active,
349 scm_close_all_ports_except, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_i_rstate,
350 SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_STRING_UCHARS, SCM_STRING_CHARS,
351 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_makstr, scm_makfromstr,
352 scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP,
353 SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP, scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
354 sym_huh, scm_variable_set_name_hint, scm_builtin_variable, SCM_VARVCELL,
355 SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_internal_with_fluids,
356 scm_make_gsubr, scm_make_gsubr_with_generic, scm_create_hook, list*,
357 SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4, SCM_LIST5,
358 SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9, scm_listify, scm_sloppy_memq,
359 scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member, scm_end_of_file_key,
360 scm_read_and_eval_x, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
361 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
362 scm_subr_entry, SCM_SUBR_DOC, scm_make_subr_opt, scm_make_subr,
363 scm_make_subr_with_generic, setjmp_type, setjmp_type,
364 scm_call_catching_errors, scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe,
365 scm_strprint_obj, scm_read_0str, scm_eval_0str, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
366 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
367 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
368 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_strhash,
369 scm_sym2vcell, scm_sym2ovcell_soft, scm_sym2ovcell,
370 scm_intern_obarray_soft, scm_intern_obarray, scm_intern, scm_intern0,
371 scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup,
372 scm_symbol_value0, scm_string_to_obarray_symbol, scm_intern_symbol,
373 scm_unintern_symbol, scm_symbol_binding, scm_symbol_interned_p,
374 scm_symbol_bound_p, scm_symbol_set_x, scm_gentemp,
375 scm_init_symbols_deprecated, s_vector_set_length_x, scm_vector_set_length_x,
376 scm_contregs, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_OPDIRP,
377 scm_fport, scm_option, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL,
378 SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
379 scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim, SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS,
380 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA,
381 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY,
382 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
383 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
384 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int,
385 scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int,
386 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell,
387 SCM_ECONSP, SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
388 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
390 Changes since Guile 1.4:
392 * Changes to the distribution
394 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
396 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
398 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
399 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
400 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
401 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
402 indicate major changes in Guile.
404 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
405 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
406 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
407 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
409 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
410 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
411 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
412 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
413 micro version number.
415 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
417 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
419 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
420 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
422 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
424 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
425 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
426 See INSTALL and README for more information.
428 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
430 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
431 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
432 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
435 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
437 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
440 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
442 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
443 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
445 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
447 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
448 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
451 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
453 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
456 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
459 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
461 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
463 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
464 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
465 open-output-string, get-output-string.
467 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
469 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
471 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
474 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
476 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
478 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
480 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
481 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
482 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
484 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
486 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
488 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
489 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
498 See README there for more info.
500 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
501 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
504 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
506 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
508 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
510 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
511 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
512 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
514 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
516 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
517 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
518 to be named `and-let*', of course.
520 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
521 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
523 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
528 (oop goops active-slot)
529 (oop goops composite-slot)
531 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
532 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
533 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
535 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
537 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
538 in the default environment:
540 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
541 %read-line write-line
543 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
544 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
546 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
548 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
551 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
552 can be used for similar functionality.
554 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
556 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
557 it defines two procedures:
559 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
561 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
562 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
563 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
566 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
568 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
569 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
570 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
573 ** New module (ice-9 match)
575 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
576 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
578 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
580 for complete documentation.
582 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
584 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
585 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
586 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
587 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
589 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
590 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
594 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
595 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
596 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
599 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
602 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
603 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
605 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
606 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
609 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
612 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
614 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
616 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
618 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
620 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
621 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
622 Scheme programs easier.
624 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
625 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
626 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
627 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
628 `cond-expand' when using this option.
631 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
632 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
634 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
637 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
639 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
640 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
641 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
644 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
646 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
648 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
649 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
650 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
651 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
652 was also ASCII, for example.
654 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
656 tag - no replacement.
657 fseek - replaced by seek.
658 list* - replaced by cons*.
660 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
664 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
665 (define m (make-safe-module))
666 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
667 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
668 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
670 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
672 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
673 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
674 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
676 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
678 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
679 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
680 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
681 from the issues related to the module system.
683 *** New function: load-extension
685 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
687 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
689 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
690 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
691 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
693 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
695 This function registers a initialization function for use by
696 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
697 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
698 support dynamic linking).
700 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
702 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
703 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
704 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
705 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
708 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
709 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
710 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
711 library and initialize it explicitely.
713 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
714 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
716 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
718 (define-module (foo bar))
720 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
722 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
724 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
725 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
727 (scheme-report-environment 5)
729 (interaction-environment)
735 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
737 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
738 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
739 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
740 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
742 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
743 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
744 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
745 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
746 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
747 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
748 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
749 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
750 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
751 one eval to the next.
753 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
754 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
755 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
756 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
757 subforms are at the top-level as well.
759 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
760 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
761 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
762 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
763 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
764 used in a lexical environment.
766 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
767 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
768 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
769 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
770 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
771 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
773 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
775 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
776 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
777 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
778 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
779 new facilities: selection and renaming.
781 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
782 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
783 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
785 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
786 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
788 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
789 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
790 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
793 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
795 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
796 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
797 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
798 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
801 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
802 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
803 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
804 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
807 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
808 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
810 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
811 ;; and all four by upcasing.
812 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
813 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
814 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
816 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
819 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
820 :renamer upcase-symbol))
822 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
823 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
824 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
826 See manual for more info.
828 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
830 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
831 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
832 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
834 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
836 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
837 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
838 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
840 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
841 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
842 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
843 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
845 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
847 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
848 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
850 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
851 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
852 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
853 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
854 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
857 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
858 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
859 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
860 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
861 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
862 successful and #f if it wasn't.
864 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
865 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
866 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
867 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
868 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
870 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
871 objects are usually permanent.
873 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
874 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
876 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
878 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
879 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
882 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
886 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
891 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
893 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
894 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
895 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
896 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
898 ** New function `make-object-property'
900 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
901 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
905 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
906 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
910 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
911 source properties eventually.
913 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
915 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
916 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
917 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
919 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
920 will be removed in the next release.
922 ** New define-module option: pure
924 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
929 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
932 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
934 Export names NAME1 ...
936 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
937 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
943 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
946 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
951 ** New function: object->string OBJ
953 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
955 ** New function: port? X
957 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
958 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
960 ** New function: file-port?
962 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
964 ** New function: port-for-each proc
966 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
967 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
968 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
969 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
970 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
972 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
974 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
975 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
976 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
977 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
978 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
981 ** New function: close-fdes fd
983 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
984 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
985 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
986 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
989 ** New function: crypt password salt
991 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
994 ** New function: chroot path
996 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
998 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1000 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1003 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1005 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1007 ** New function: getpass prompt
1009 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1012 ** New function: flock file operation
1014 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1016 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1018 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1021 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1023 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1024 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1025 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1026 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1027 of the temporary file.
1029 ** New function: open-input-string string
1031 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1032 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1033 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1035 ** New function: open-output-string
1037 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1038 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1040 ** New function: get-output-string
1042 Return the contents of an output string port.
1044 ** New function: identity
1046 Return the argument.
1048 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1049 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1051 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1053 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1054 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1055 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1058 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1059 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1061 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1063 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1064 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1065 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1068 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1069 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1070 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1074 Use `identity' instead.
1080 ** Deprecated: return-it
1084 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1086 Use `string-length' instead.
1088 ** Deprecated: flags
1090 Use `logior' instead.
1092 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1094 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1095 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1096 port-for-each is more flexible.
1098 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1099 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1100 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1102 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1104 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1106 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1108 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1110 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1112 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1113 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1115 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1116 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1118 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1119 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1121 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1123 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1124 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1126 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1127 Use module system operations for all variables.
1129 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1131 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1134 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1136 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1137 The following bugs have been fixed:
1139 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1140 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1143 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1144 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1145 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1147 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1148 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1150 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1151 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1154 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1155 The expansion used to be like so:
1157 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1159 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1161 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1163 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1164 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1166 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1168 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1169 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1170 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1174 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1175 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1177 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1182 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1183 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1185 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1186 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1187 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1189 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1192 * Changes to the C interface
1194 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1196 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1197 with "_t". What a concept.
1199 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1201 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1203 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1207 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1208 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1210 *** C Functions removed
1212 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1213 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1214 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1215 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1216 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1217 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1218 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1220 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1222 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1224 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1226 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1228 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1229 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1231 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1233 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1236 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1238 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1240 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1242 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
1246 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
1248 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1250 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
1255 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
1257 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1259 Create a list of the given number of elements.
1261 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1263 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1264 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1266 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1268 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1270 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1271 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1272 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1274 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1276 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1278 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1279 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1280 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1283 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1285 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1287 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1288 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1290 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1292 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1293 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1294 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1295 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1297 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1298 scm_primitive_property_ref
1299 scm_primitive_property_set_x
1300 scm_primitive_property_del_x
1302 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
1303 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
1305 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
1307 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
1308 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
1309 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
1310 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
1312 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
1314 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
1315 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1316 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1317 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1318 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1319 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1320 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1322 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1323 scm_remember_upto_here
1325 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1327 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1329 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1330 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1332 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1334 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1336 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1338 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1340 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1342 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1343 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1344 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1345 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1346 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1347 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1349 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1351 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1353 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1354 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1355 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1357 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1359 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1360 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1361 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1363 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1365 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1366 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1369 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1372 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1373 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1376 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1378 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1380 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1382 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1384 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1386 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1388 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1389 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1390 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1391 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1392 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1393 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1394 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1395 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1396 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1397 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1398 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1399 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1400 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1401 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1402 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1404 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1405 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1406 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1407 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1408 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1409 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1410 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1411 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1412 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1413 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1414 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1415 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1416 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1417 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1418 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1419 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1420 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1421 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1422 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1423 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1424 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1425 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1426 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1427 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1428 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1429 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1430 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1431 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1432 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1434 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1436 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1438 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1439 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1441 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1443 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1445 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1447 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1449 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1451 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1453 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1455 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1457 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1460 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1461 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1463 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1465 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1467 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1469 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1471 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1473 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1475 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1477 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1480 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1482 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1484 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1486 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1487 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1489 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1490 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1492 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1494 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1495 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1496 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1498 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
1500 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
1502 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
1503 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
1505 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
1506 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
1507 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
1508 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
1510 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
1511 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
1512 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
1514 Use the new ones from above instead.
1516 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
1518 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
1519 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
1520 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
1522 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
1523 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
1525 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
1526 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
1529 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
1530 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
1532 Use the new functions instead.
1534 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
1537 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
1539 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
1541 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
1544 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
1546 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
1549 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
1551 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
1554 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
1555 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
1556 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
1558 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
1560 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
1561 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
1563 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
1564 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
1565 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
1566 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
1569 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
1571 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
1572 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
1573 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
1574 inexact for an exact.
1576 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
1577 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
1578 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
1581 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
1582 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
1583 accept an inexact argument.
1585 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
1586 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
1588 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
1591 ** New number validation macros:
1592 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
1596 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
1598 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
1599 scm_unprotect_object.
1601 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
1603 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
1605 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
1608 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
1610 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
1614 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
1616 * Changes to the distribution
1618 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
1620 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
1621 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
1622 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
1623 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
1624 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
1625 obtain these programs.
1626 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
1627 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
1629 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
1630 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
1631 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
1632 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
1633 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
1635 However, this approach means that minor differences between
1636 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
1637 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
1638 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
1642 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
1645 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
1646 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
1647 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
1648 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
1650 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
1652 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
1654 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
1655 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
1657 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
1658 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
1660 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
1661 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1663 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1664 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1665 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1666 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1668 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1670 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1674 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1675 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1677 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1679 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1680 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1682 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1683 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1684 number of objects of that kind.
1686 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1688 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1689 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1690 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1691 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1692 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1694 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1696 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1698 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1700 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1703 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1705 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1707 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1709 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1711 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1713 ** New command line option --debug
1715 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1717 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1719 ** New help facility
1721 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1722 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1723 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1724 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1725 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1726 (help) gives this text
1728 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1729 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1731 Examples: (help help)
1733 (help "output-string")
1735 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1737 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1739 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1740 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1743 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1744 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1745 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1748 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1749 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1750 use absolute filenames when possible.
1752 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1753 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1754 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1757 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1759 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1760 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1761 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1762 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1764 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1766 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1768 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1769 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1770 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1772 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1773 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1774 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1776 (read-enable 'positions)
1777 (debug-enable 'debug)
1779 ** Backtraces in scripts
1781 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1785 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1787 at the top of the script.
1789 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1790 The second enables backtraces.)
1792 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1794 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1795 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1796 substantially faster than before.
1798 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1799 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1801 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1802 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1804 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1806 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1807 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1808 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1810 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1811 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1812 when this hook is run in the future.
1814 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1815 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1817 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1819 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1820 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1823 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1824 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1825 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1827 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1828 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1830 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1831 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1833 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1834 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1835 in order not to need further allocation.)
1837 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1840 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1841 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1842 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1843 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1845 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1847 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1850 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1852 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1855 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1856 GC in percent of total heap size
1859 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1860 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1862 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1864 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1865 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1867 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1869 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1870 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1872 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1874 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1875 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1879 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1880 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1882 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1884 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1886 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1888 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1890 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1892 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1893 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1895 (simple-format port message . args)
1896 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1897 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1898 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1899 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1900 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1901 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1902 Does not add a trailing newline."
1904 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1906 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1907 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1909 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1910 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1912 ** Deprecated: list*
1914 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1916 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1918 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1919 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1921 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1922 is returned as result.
1924 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1926 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1928 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1930 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1931 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1934 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1936 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1938 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1939 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1941 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1943 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1945 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1947 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1949 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1951 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1953 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1955 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1956 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1957 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1959 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1962 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1964 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1965 the readability of argument checking.
1967 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1969 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1971 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1973 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1974 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1975 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1976 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1977 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1978 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1979 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1981 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1983 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1985 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1986 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1988 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1990 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1991 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1994 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1996 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1997 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1998 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2000 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
2001 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
2002 implementation with gmp in the future.
2004 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2005 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2006 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2008 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2009 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2010 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2011 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2012 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2013 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2014 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2016 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2017 scm_end_input (object);
2018 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2019 ptob->flush (object);
2021 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2022 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2025 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2027 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2029 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2030 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2031 removed in a future version.
2033 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2035 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2036 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2037 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2038 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2040 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2041 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2043 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2046 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2048 in your configure.in.
2050 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2055 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2061 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2063 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2067 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2068 (define make-message string-append)
2070 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2072 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2076 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2081 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2085 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2087 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2088 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2090 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2092 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2093 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2094 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2095 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2096 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2097 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2099 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2100 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2101 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2103 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2104 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2105 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2108 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2109 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2110 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2111 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2112 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2114 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2115 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2116 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2117 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2118 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2119 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2120 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2122 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2124 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2125 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2126 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2128 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2129 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2130 KEY in the calling thread.
2132 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2133 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2134 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2135 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2136 associated with the key.
2138 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2140 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2141 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2143 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2145 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2146 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2147 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2149 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2151 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2152 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2154 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2156 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2158 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2159 returned is undefined.
2161 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2162 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2163 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2165 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2166 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2167 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2169 ** New C level GC hooks
2171 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2173 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2176 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2177 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2178 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2180 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2181 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2182 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2184 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2185 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2188 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2190 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2191 allocation parameters
2193 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2194 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2195 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2199 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2200 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2201 scm_default_max_segment_size
2203 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2205 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2206 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2208 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2210 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2211 object and count on the object being protected until
2212 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2214 The functions also have better time complexity.
2216 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2217 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2218 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2219 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2220 are no longer needed.
2222 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2224 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2225 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2226 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2227 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2229 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2231 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2233 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2235 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2236 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2237 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2238 until this issue has been settled.
2240 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2242 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2244 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2247 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2249 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2251 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2252 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2253 descriptors were checked.
2255 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2256 atomically written to a pipe.
2258 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2259 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2260 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2261 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2262 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2263 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2264 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2267 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2268 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2269 is changed without calling tzset.
2271 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2273 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2274 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2275 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2277 (define write-network-long
2278 (lambda (value port)
2279 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2280 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2281 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2283 (define read-network-long
2285 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2286 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2287 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2289 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2290 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2292 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2293 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2294 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2295 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2297 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2298 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2299 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2300 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
2304 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
2306 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2310 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
2311 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
2312 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2318 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2319 for a description of available commands.
2321 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2322 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2323 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2325 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2327 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2328 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2330 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2332 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2334 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2335 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2336 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2337 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2338 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2339 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2342 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2344 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2345 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2346 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2347 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2349 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2350 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2352 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2354 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2356 ** Readline support has changed again.
2358 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2359 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2360 to activate readline is now
2362 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2365 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2367 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2368 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2369 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2372 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2373 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2374 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2377 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2378 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2379 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2380 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2381 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2382 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2384 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2385 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2387 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2389 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2390 object it receives is the same string passed to
2391 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2392 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2393 string, not the suffix.
2395 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2396 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2397 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2399 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2401 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2402 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2403 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2404 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2407 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2409 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2411 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2412 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2413 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2414 appear from left to right.
2416 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2419 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2421 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2422 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2424 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2428 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2430 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2432 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2434 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2435 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2436 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2438 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2440 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2442 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2444 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2447 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2449 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2450 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2451 mentioning it here anyway.
2453 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2455 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2456 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2457 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2458 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2461 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2463 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2465 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2467 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2468 otherwise return #f.
2470 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2472 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2473 returned by `opendir'.
2475 ** New function: using-readline?
2477 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2479 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2481 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2482 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2484 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2486 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2488 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2489 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2490 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2492 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2494 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2495 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2497 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2499 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2500 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2501 documentation slots are not yet used.
2503 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
2505 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
2506 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
2507 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
2512 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
2513 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
2514 (string-append x y))
2516 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
2517 can also be used for concatenating strings.
2519 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
2520 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
2521 be made in a clean way.]
2523 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
2525 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2527 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2529 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
2530 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
2532 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2534 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
2536 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2538 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2540 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
2541 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
2542 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
2543 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
2546 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2548 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
2550 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2552 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2554 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
2555 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
2557 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2559 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
2561 Evaluates the body of a special form.
2563 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
2565 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
2566 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
2567 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
2568 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
2569 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
2570 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
2572 This should not make any difference for most users.
2574 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
2576 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
2577 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
2579 *** New functions for applying generic functions
2581 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
2582 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
2583 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
2584 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
2585 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
2587 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
2589 It is now replaced by:
2591 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
2593 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2594 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2596 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2598 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
2599 This might change when we get the new module system.
2601 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
2605 Changes since Guile 1.3:
2607 * Changes to mailing lists
2609 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
2611 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
2614 * Changes to the distribution
2616 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
2618 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
2619 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
2620 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
2621 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
2622 you explicitly specify it.
2624 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
2625 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
2626 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
2627 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
2628 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
2631 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
2632 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
2633 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
2634 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
2636 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
2637 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
2638 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
2641 You can activate the readline support by issuing
2643 (use-modules (readline-activator))
2646 from your ".guile" file, for example.
2648 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2650 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
2651 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
2652 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
2653 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
2655 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
2656 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
2659 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2661 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2662 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2663 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2664 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2665 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2666 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2667 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2668 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2680 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2681 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2682 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2683 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2684 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2689 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2690 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2698 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2703 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2704 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2707 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2708 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2709 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2710 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2712 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2714 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2716 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2717 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2719 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2721 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2723 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2724 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2726 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2729 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2731 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2733 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2735 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2737 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2739 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2741 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2742 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2743 when the hook was created.
2745 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2746 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2747 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2748 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2749 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2750 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2751 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2752 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2753 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2755 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2756 the dlopen family of functions.
2758 ** New function `provided?'
2760 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2761 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2762 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2763 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2765 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2767 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2768 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2769 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2770 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2773 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2774 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2775 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2776 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2778 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2779 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2780 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2783 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2784 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2785 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2786 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2787 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2788 but with the flag set.
2790 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2792 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2793 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2795 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2796 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2797 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2798 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2799 available Scheme format implementations.
2801 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2802 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2803 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2804 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2805 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2806 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2807 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2808 output is to the current error port if available by the
2809 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2812 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2813 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2814 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2815 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2816 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2817 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2818 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2819 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2821 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2822 be executed at a time.
2825 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2827 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2828 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2829 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2831 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2832 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2833 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2834 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2835 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2836 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2837 general form of a directive is:
2839 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2841 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2843 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2845 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2846 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2847 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2850 Any (print as `display' does).
2854 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2858 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2862 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2868 print number sign always.
2871 print comma separated.
2873 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2879 print number sign always.
2882 print comma separated.
2884 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2890 print number sign always.
2893 print comma separated.
2895 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2901 print number sign always.
2904 print comma separated.
2906 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2911 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2915 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2918 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2921 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2924 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2929 prints `y' and `ies'.
2932 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2935 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2940 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2944 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2947 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2948 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2950 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2953 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2954 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2956 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2959 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2961 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2963 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2966 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2968 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2970 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2973 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2976 The sign appears before the padding.
2984 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2986 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2991 print N page separators.
3001 newline is ignored, white space left.
3004 newline is left, white space ignored.
3009 relative tabulation.
3015 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3017 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3020 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3022 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3025 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3028 converts by `string-upcase'.
3031 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3033 jumps N arguments forward.
3036 jumps 1 argument backward.
3039 jumps N arguments backward.
3042 jumps to the 0th argument.
3045 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3047 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3048 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3050 take argument from N.
3053 true test conditional.
3056 if-else-then conditional.
3062 default clause follows.
3065 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3067 at most N iterations.
3070 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3073 args from the rest of arguments.
3076 args from the rest args (lists).
3087 aborts if N <= M <= K
3089 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3092 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3095 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3101 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3103 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3105 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3106 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3107 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3108 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3109 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3110 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3114 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3118 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3124 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3127 Print a `#\space' character
3129 print N `#\space' characters.
3132 Print a `#\tab' character
3134 print N `#\tab' characters.
3137 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3138 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3139 must be a positive decimal number.
3142 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3143 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3144 be processed by `read'.
3147 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3148 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3149 be processed by `read'.
3152 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3155 prints format version.
3158 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3159 and format it accordingly.
3161 *** Configuration Variables
3163 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3164 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3165 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3166 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3169 format:symbol-case-conv
3170 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3171 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3172 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3173 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3174 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3176 format:iobj-case-conv
3177 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3178 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3181 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3184 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3190 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3191 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3192 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3193 `format' padding style.
3196 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3197 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3198 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3199 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3203 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3204 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3205 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3208 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3209 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3210 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3211 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3212 parameters or modifiers)).
3215 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3217 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3219 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3220 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3222 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3223 string-downcase! functions.
3225 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3226 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3228 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3231 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3234 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3235 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3237 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3239 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3240 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3242 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3243 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3244 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3245 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3246 would if STRING were input.
3248 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3250 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3251 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3252 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3253 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3256 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3258 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3259 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3262 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3264 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3265 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3267 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3268 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3270 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3271 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3272 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3273 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3275 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3276 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3278 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3279 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3280 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3282 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3283 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3285 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3286 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3287 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3288 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3289 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3291 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3292 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3293 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3294 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3295 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3296 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3298 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3299 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3300 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
3303 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
3304 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
3305 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
3306 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
3307 the following grammar:
3308 ((apples (single-char #\a))
3309 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
3310 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
3311 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
3312 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
3313 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
3314 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
3315 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3316 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3317 last option in its combination)
3319 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3320 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3321 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3322 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3324 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3325 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3326 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3328 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3329 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3330 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3332 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3333 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3334 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3335 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3336 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3337 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3338 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3339 ordinary argument strings.
3341 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3342 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3343 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3344 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3346 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3347 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3349 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3350 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3351 - a required option is omitted
3352 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3353 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3354 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3355 - an option predicate fails
3360 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3363 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3364 (verbose (required? #f)
3367 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3368 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3369 (predicate ,string?))))
3371 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3372 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3374 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3375 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3376 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3377 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3380 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3382 It will be removed in a few releases.
3384 ** New syntax: lambda*
3385 ** New syntax: define*
3386 ** New syntax: define*-public
3387 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3388 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3389 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3391 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3392 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3393 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3394 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3395 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3397 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3398 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3399 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3401 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3403 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3404 and examples for `lambda*':
3407 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3409 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3410 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3411 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3412 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3413 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3414 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3415 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3416 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3418 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3420 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3421 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3422 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3423 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3425 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3426 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3427 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3428 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3429 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3430 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3431 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3432 and until the procedure is called.
3434 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3436 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3437 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3438 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3439 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3440 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3441 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3442 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3443 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3444 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3445 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3447 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3448 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3449 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3450 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3453 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3455 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3456 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3457 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3458 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3460 ** New syntax: and-let*
3461 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3463 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3464 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3465 (<variable> <expression>)
3468 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3469 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3470 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3473 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3474 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3475 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3476 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3477 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3478 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3479 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3481 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3482 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3483 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3484 shadow earlier bindings.
3486 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3488 ** New sorting functions
3490 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3491 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3492 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3493 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3495 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3496 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3499 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3500 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3501 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3503 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
3504 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
3505 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
3506 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
3508 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3509 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
3510 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
3511 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
3512 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
3515 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3516 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
3517 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
3518 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
3519 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
3520 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
3522 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
3523 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
3524 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
3526 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3527 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
3528 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
3531 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
3532 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
3533 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
3535 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
3536 Added for compatibility with scsh.
3538 ** New built-in random number support
3540 *** New function: random N [STATE]
3541 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
3542 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
3543 returned have a uniform distribution.
3545 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
3546 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
3547 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
3548 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
3549 effect of the `random' operation.
3551 *** New variable: *random-state*
3552 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
3553 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
3554 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
3555 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
3556 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
3559 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
3560 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3561 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3562 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
3563 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
3565 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
3566 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3567 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3568 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
3569 initialized using SEED.
3571 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
3572 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
3573 range between 0 and 1.
3575 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3576 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
3577 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
3578 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
3579 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
3580 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
3581 or a uniform vector of doubles.
3583 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3584 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
3585 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
3586 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
3587 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
3588 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3590 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
3591 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
3592 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
3593 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
3595 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
3596 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
3597 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
3598 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3600 *** New function: random:exp STATE
3601 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
3602 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
3604 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
3606 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
3609 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
3610 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
3613 ** New function: make-guardian
3614 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
3615 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
3616 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
3617 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
3618 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
3620 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
3621 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
3622 one object if at all.
3624 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
3625 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
3626 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
3628 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
3629 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
3630 read again in last-in first-out order.
3632 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
3633 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
3635 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
3637 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
3638 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
3639 file position is used.
3641 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
3642 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
3643 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
3645 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
3646 redefined using seek.
3648 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
3649 size is not supplied.
3651 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
3652 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
3654 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
3655 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
3657 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
3659 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
3660 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
3661 and returns the contents as a single string.
3663 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3664 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3665 lists in serial order.
3667 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3668 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3669 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3671 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3672 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3673 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3674 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3676 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3677 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3678 and #f if an error occured.
3680 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3682 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3683 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3684 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3685 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3687 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3689 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3692 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3694 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3697 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3701 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3702 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3704 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3705 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3709 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3711 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3713 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3714 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3716 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3718 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3719 might change when we get the new module system.
3721 ** The smob interface
3723 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3724 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3726 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3728 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3732 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3733 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3734 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3735 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3736 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3737 will be freed by the default free function.
3739 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3740 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3741 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3742 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3744 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3745 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3746 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3747 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3749 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3751 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3752 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3756 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3757 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3758 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3760 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3761 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3762 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3763 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3765 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3766 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3767 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3769 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3770 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3771 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3772 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3774 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3775 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3776 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3778 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3782 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3784 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3785 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3786 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3788 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3789 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3790 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3792 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3793 a string port's buffer.
3795 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3796 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3797 function pointers which together define the current random number
3798 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3799 number library functions.
3801 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3804 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3805 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3808 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3809 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3811 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3812 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3814 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3815 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3818 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3819 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3820 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3821 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3823 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3824 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3825 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3826 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3827 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3828 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3829 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3831 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3832 by libguile and the application.
3834 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3835 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3836 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3837 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3839 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3840 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3842 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3843 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3844 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3846 ** Random number library functions
3847 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3848 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3849 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3851 The default random state is stored in:
3853 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3854 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3855 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3860 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3862 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3863 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3864 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3865 isn't a random state.
3867 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3868 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3870 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3871 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3872 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3873 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3875 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3876 Return 32 random bits.
3878 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3879 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3881 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3882 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3884 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3885 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3887 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3888 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3890 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3891 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3892 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3896 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3898 * Changes to the distribution
3900 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3901 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3902 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3905 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3906 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3907 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3909 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3910 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3911 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3912 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3915 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3916 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3917 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3919 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3921 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3923 *** Function: batch-mode?
3925 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3928 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3930 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3931 case has not been implemented.
3933 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3934 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3935 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3938 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3939 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3941 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3943 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3945 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3947 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3948 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3951 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3952 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3953 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3954 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3957 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3959 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3960 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3961 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3962 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3963 find those libraries.
3965 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3966 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3969 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3971 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3972 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3973 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3974 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3976 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3977 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3978 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3982 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3984 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3985 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3986 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3989 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3990 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3991 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3992 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3994 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3995 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3998 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3999 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4000 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4001 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4002 compiler where to find the libraries.
4004 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4005 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4006 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4008 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4009 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4010 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4011 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4012 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4016 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4018 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4019 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4020 internationalization support.
4022 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4023 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4024 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4025 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4026 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4028 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4029 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4030 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4031 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4032 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4034 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4035 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4036 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4037 any GNU mirror site.
4039 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4041 ** New function: add-history STRING
4042 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4043 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4044 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4046 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4048 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4049 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4050 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4053 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4054 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4055 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4057 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4059 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4062 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4063 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4066 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4067 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4068 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4069 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4070 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4071 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4073 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4074 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4075 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4076 of the form mentioned above.
4078 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4079 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4080 returned in the special `rest' list.
4082 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4083 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4085 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4087 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4089 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4091 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4092 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4093 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4094 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4095 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4096 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4097 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4098 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4101 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4103 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4105 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4106 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4109 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4110 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4111 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4115 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4116 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4117 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4118 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4119 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4120 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4121 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4122 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4125 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4127 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4128 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4129 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4131 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4133 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4134 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4136 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4137 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4138 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4140 Why do we have this function?
4141 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4142 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4143 primitive, and display it differently, and
4144 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4145 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4148 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4149 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4152 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4153 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4154 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4155 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4157 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4158 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4161 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4162 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4164 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4166 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4167 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4168 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4169 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4170 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4171 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4172 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4175 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4177 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4178 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4180 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4181 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4182 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4183 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4184 properly continue the print chain.
4186 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4187 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4188 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4189 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4190 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4191 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4192 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4193 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4195 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4196 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4197 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4198 safest to not check for these pairs.
4200 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4201 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4202 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4203 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4205 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4207 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4208 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4210 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4212 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4214 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4215 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4216 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4218 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4219 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4220 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4222 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4223 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4224 the following functions and macros:
4226 Function: make-fluid
4228 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4229 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4230 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4231 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4232 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4234 Function: fluid? OBJ
4236 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4238 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4239 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4241 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4242 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4244 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4246 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4247 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4248 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4249 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4250 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4251 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4252 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4254 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4256 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4257 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4258 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4259 should evaluate to a fluid.
4261 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4263 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4264 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4265 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4266 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4267 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4269 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4272 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4274 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4276 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4278 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4281 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4282 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4283 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4284 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4285 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4288 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4289 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4290 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4292 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4293 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4294 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4296 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4297 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4298 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4299 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4301 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4302 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
4303 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4304 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
4306 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
4307 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
4308 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
4309 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
4311 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
4312 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
4313 their revealed counts set to zero.
4315 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4316 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4318 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4319 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4321 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4322 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4324 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4325 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4326 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4328 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4329 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4330 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4332 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4333 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4334 default environment inherited by child processes.
4336 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4337 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4338 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4340 The return value is unspecified.
4342 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4343 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4344 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4345 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4346 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4348 The return value is unspecified.
4350 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4351 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4359 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4360 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4363 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4366 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4367 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4368 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4370 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4371 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4372 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4373 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4376 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4377 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4379 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4380 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4381 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4382 the `environ' procedure.
4384 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4385 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4388 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4389 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4391 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4392 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4393 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4394 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4396 *** procedure: times
4397 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4398 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4399 return a selected component:
4402 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4406 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4409 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4413 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4414 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4418 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4419 terminated child processes.
4421 ** Removed: list-length
4422 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4423 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4425 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4427 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4429 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4431 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4432 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4433 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4434 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4436 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4437 extra complexity it introduces.
4439 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4440 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4442 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4443 variable to any non-empty value.
4445 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4446 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4448 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4450 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4451 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4453 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4455 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4456 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4458 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4460 ** vector handling routines
4462 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4463 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4464 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4465 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4466 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4468 ** pair and list routines
4470 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4473 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4475 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4478 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4480 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4482 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4483 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4484 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4485 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4486 site-specific initialization code.
4488 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4489 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4490 initialization processes.
4492 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4493 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4494 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4495 initialized properly.
4497 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4498 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4499 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4501 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4502 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4503 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
4504 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
4505 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
4507 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
4509 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
4510 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
4511 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
4512 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
4513 objects the smob refers to get marked.
4515 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
4516 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
4517 which look like this:
4520 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
4522 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
4523 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
4526 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
4527 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
4530 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
4532 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
4533 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
4534 you will need to change your functions slightly.
4536 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
4537 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
4538 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
4539 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
4540 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
4542 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
4543 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
4545 int (*free) (SCM port);
4546 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
4547 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
4548 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
4552 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
4553 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
4554 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
4556 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
4559 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
4560 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
4561 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
4563 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
4564 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
4565 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
4568 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
4572 struct timeval *timeout);
4574 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
4575 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
4576 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
4577 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
4578 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
4579 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
4581 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
4582 scm_catch_body_t body,
4584 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4587 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
4588 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
4589 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
4590 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
4591 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
4592 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
4594 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
4596 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4599 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
4600 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
4601 spawning threads from application C code.
4603 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
4604 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
4605 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
4606 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
4607 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
4608 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
4610 ** Removed functions:
4612 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
4613 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
4615 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
4617 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
4618 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
4620 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
4622 ** mbstrings are now removed
4624 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
4625 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
4627 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
4629 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
4630 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
4631 their new names and arguments:
4633 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
4634 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
4635 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
4636 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
4639 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
4641 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
4643 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
4646 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
4648 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
4649 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
4650 pass a #f arg to catch.
4652 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
4654 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
4655 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
4658 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
4659 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
4660 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
4661 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4662 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4663 reclaim its storage.
4665 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4666 worrying that some other function you call will call
4667 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4668 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4669 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4670 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4673 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4675 * Changes to the distribution
4677 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4678 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4681 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4682 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4684 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4685 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4687 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4689 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4690 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4691 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4693 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4695 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4696 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4697 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4698 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4699 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4700 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4702 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4703 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4704 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4707 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4708 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4709 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4710 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4712 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4713 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4714 libraries to your link command:
4716 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4717 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4718 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4719 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4721 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4722 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4723 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4725 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4727 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4728 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4731 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4733 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4734 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4735 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4736 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4737 searched is system dependent.
4739 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4741 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4743 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4745 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4746 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4748 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4750 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4751 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4752 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4753 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4754 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4757 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4759 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4760 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4761 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4762 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4763 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4765 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4767 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4768 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4770 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4772 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4773 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4774 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4777 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4779 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4780 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4781 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4782 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4784 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4785 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4787 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4789 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4790 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4792 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4794 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4795 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4803 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4805 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4806 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4807 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4808 a more informative way.
4810 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4811 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4812 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4813 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4814 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4815 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4817 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4818 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4821 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4822 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4823 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4826 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4827 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4828 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4829 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4830 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4831 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4833 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4834 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4835 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4836 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4839 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4840 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4841 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4842 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4843 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4844 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4846 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4847 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4848 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4849 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4850 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4852 *** regexp functions
4854 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4855 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4856 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4858 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4859 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4860 with SCSH regular expressions.
4862 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4863 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4864 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4865 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4867 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4868 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4869 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4870 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4872 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4873 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4874 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4875 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4876 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4877 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4879 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4880 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4881 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4882 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4883 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4885 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4887 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4888 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4889 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4890 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4892 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4893 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4894 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4896 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4897 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4899 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4902 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4903 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4904 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4906 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4907 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4908 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4910 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4911 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4912 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4913 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4914 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4917 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4919 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4920 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4921 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4922 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4923 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4924 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4926 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4927 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4928 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4930 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4931 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4934 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4935 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4937 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4938 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4939 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4940 may be one of the following arguments:
4942 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4944 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4946 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4947 the regexp match is written.
4949 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4950 following the regexp match is written.
4952 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4953 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4956 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4957 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4958 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4959 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4960 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4961 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4963 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4966 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4967 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4968 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4969 written out to PORT.
4971 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4972 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4973 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4974 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4975 will return after processing a single match.
4977 *** Match Structures
4979 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4980 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4981 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4982 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4983 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4984 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4987 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4988 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4989 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4990 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4991 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4993 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4994 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4995 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4997 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4998 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4999 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5000 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5001 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5003 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5004 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5006 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5007 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5009 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5010 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5012 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5013 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5015 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5016 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5017 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5018 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5020 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5021 Return the original TARGET string.
5023 *** Backslash Escapes
5025 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5026 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5027 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5028 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5029 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5030 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5032 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5033 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5034 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5035 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5036 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5037 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5038 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5039 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5041 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5042 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5043 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5044 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5045 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5046 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5047 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5049 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5050 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5051 return the resulting string.
5053 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5054 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5055 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5056 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5057 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5058 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5059 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5060 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5061 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5062 translated to the single character `*'.
5064 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5065 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5066 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5067 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5068 consecutive backslashes:
5070 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5072 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5073 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5074 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5076 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5077 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5078 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5079 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5080 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5081 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5083 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5085 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5086 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5087 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5088 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5089 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5090 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5091 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5092 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5093 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5094 cumbersome escape syntax.
5096 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5098 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5100 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5102 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5105 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5107 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5109 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5112 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5113 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5114 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5115 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5116 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5118 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5119 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5120 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5121 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5122 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5123 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5124 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5127 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5128 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5129 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5132 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5133 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5135 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5136 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5137 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5138 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5139 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5140 installed, you can say:
5142 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5145 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5147 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5148 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5149 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5150 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5151 new dynamic roots and threads.
5154 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5156 * Changes to the distribution.
5158 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5160 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5161 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5162 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5163 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5164 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5165 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5166 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5167 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5169 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5172 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5173 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5178 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5180 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5181 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5183 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5184 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5185 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5186 the (command-line) function.
5187 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5188 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5189 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5191 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5192 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5193 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5194 command line arguments
5195 -ds do -s script at this point
5196 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5197 -h, --help display this help and exit
5198 -v, --version display version information and exit
5199 \ read arguments from following script lines
5201 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5202 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5204 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5207 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5211 (main (command-line))
5213 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5215 ekko a speckled gecko
5217 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5218 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5219 following list of command-line arguments:
5221 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5223 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5224 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5225 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5226 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5227 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5229 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5231 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5233 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5234 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5237 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5238 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5239 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5240 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5242 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5243 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5244 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5245 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5247 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5251 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5255 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5257 ekko a speckled gecko
5259 Unix expands this into
5261 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5263 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5264 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5266 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5268 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5269 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5271 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5272 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5273 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5274 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5275 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5276 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5277 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5278 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5279 it only terminates the argument list.)
5280 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5281 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5282 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5283 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5284 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5285 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5286 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5287 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5289 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5291 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5292 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5293 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5294 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5295 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5297 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5298 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5299 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5301 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
5303 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
5304 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
5305 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
5306 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
5309 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
5310 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5311 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5313 * Changes to Scheme functions
5315 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5316 and disabled by default.
5318 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5319 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5320 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5321 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5323 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5325 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5327 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5328 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5330 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5331 (read-set! keywords #f)
5333 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5334 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5335 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5338 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5339 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5340 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5343 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5344 support for Scheme functions.
5346 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5347 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5348 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5349 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5352 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5353 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5354 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5357 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5358 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5359 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5362 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5363 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5364 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5365 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5366 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5367 display the result as a prompt.
5368 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5370 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5371 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5372 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5375 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5376 procedure of zero arguments.
5378 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5379 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5380 argument is bound in the current module.
5382 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5383 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5384 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5385 public bindings into the current module.
5387 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5388 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5390 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5391 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5393 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5394 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5396 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5397 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5399 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5400 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5402 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5403 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5404 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5405 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5406 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5408 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5409 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5410 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5411 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5413 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5416 ** Changes to I/O functions
5418 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5419 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5420 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5422 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5423 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5424 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5426 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5427 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5429 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5430 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5431 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5432 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5434 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5436 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5437 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5439 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5440 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5441 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5442 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5443 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5446 'trim omit delimiter from result
5447 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5448 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5449 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5451 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5453 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5454 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5456 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5457 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5458 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5459 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5460 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5462 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5463 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5464 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5466 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5467 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5468 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5469 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5471 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5472 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5474 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5475 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5477 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5479 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5480 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5481 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5482 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5483 a delimiting character.
5484 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5486 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5487 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5488 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5489 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5490 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5491 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5493 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5494 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5496 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5497 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5498 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5500 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5501 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5502 the array to read and write.
5504 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
5505 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
5508 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
5510 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
5513 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
5514 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
5515 Values for COMMAND are:
5517 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
5518 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
5519 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
5520 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
5521 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
5522 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
5523 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
5524 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
5526 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
5528 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
5529 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
5530 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
5531 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
5532 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
5533 corresponding return set will be the same.
5535 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
5538 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
5539 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
5540 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
5541 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
5542 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
5543 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
5544 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
5545 special file being created.
5547 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
5548 clashing with various SCSH forks.
5550 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
5551 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
5552 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
5553 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
5554 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
5555 and originating address.
5557 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
5558 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
5559 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
5561 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
5564 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
5565 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
5568 (status:exit-val STATUS)
5569 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
5570 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
5571 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
5572 this function returns #f.
5574 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
5575 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
5576 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
5579 (status:term-sig STATUS)
5580 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
5581 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
5584 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
5585 a valid STATUS value.
5587 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
5589 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
5590 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
5592 Component Accessor Setter
5593 ========================= ============ ============
5594 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
5595 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
5596 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
5597 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
5598 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
5599 year tm:year set-tm:year
5600 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
5601 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
5602 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
5603 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
5604 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
5606 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
5607 describing the host system:
5610 ============================================== ================
5611 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
5612 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
5613 release level of the operating system utsname:release
5614 version level of the operating system utsname:version
5615 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
5617 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
5618 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
5619 system's user database:
5622 ====================== =================
5623 user name passwd:name
5624 user password passwd:passwd
5627 real name passwd:gecos
5628 home directory passwd:dir
5629 shell program passwd:shell
5631 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
5632 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
5633 system's group database:
5636 ======================= ============
5637 group name group:name
5638 group password group:passwd
5640 group members group:mem
5642 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
5643 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
5647 ========================= ===============
5648 official name of host hostent:name
5649 alias list hostent:aliases
5650 host address type hostent:addrtype
5651 length of address hostent:length
5652 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
5654 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
5655 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
5659 ========================= ===============
5660 official name of net netent:name
5661 alias list netent:aliases
5662 net number type netent:addrtype
5663 net number netent:net
5665 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5666 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5670 ========================= ===============
5671 official protocol name protoent:name
5672 alias list protoent:aliases
5673 protocol number protoent:proto
5675 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5676 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5680 ========================= ===============
5681 official service name servent:name
5682 alias list servent:aliases
5683 port number servent:port
5684 protocol to use servent:proto
5686 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5687 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5690 ======================================== ===============
5691 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5692 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5693 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5694 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5696 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5697 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5698 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5700 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5701 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5703 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5704 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5706 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5707 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5709 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5711 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5713 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5714 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5715 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5717 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5718 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5719 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5720 return the remaining characters as a string.
5722 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5723 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5724 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5726 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5728 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5730 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5733 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5736 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5737 and returns the array
5739 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5740 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5741 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5743 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5745 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5746 symbol's value from C code:
5748 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5749 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5750 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5751 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5753 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5754 without assigning them a value.
5756 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5757 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5758 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5760 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5761 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5762 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5764 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5765 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5767 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5768 doesn't actually care about that.
5770 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5771 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5772 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5774 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5775 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5776 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5777 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5778 which we have just created and initialized.
5780 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5781 should one occur. We call it like this:
5782 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5784 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5785 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5786 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5787 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5788 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5789 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5792 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5793 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5794 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5795 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5796 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5797 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5798 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5801 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5802 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5803 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5804 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5805 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5808 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5809 scm_internal_catch, except:
5811 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5812 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5813 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5814 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5817 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5818 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5819 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5821 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5822 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5823 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5824 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5827 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5828 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5829 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5831 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5832 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5833 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5834 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5835 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5837 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5838 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5839 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5841 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5842 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5843 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5845 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5846 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5848 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5849 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5850 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5853 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5854 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5855 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5856 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5857 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5858 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5859 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5862 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5863 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5865 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5866 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5867 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5868 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5869 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5872 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5873 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5875 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5876 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5879 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5880 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5882 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5885 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5886 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5887 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5888 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5889 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5890 given the following arguments:
5892 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5894 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5896 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5898 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5901 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5902 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5903 command-line arguments.
5905 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5906 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5907 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5908 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5909 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5910 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5913 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5916 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5917 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5919 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5920 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5922 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5923 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5924 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5925 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5927 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5928 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5930 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5931 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5932 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5933 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5935 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5936 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5938 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5939 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5941 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5943 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5944 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5945 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5948 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5949 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5951 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5952 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5957 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5960 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5962 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5963 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5964 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5965 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5967 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5969 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5971 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5972 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5973 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5974 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5975 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5976 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5977 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5978 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5979 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5980 for more information.
5982 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5983 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5985 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5986 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5987 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5988 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5989 following two lines at the top of the file:
5991 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5994 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5995 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5996 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5998 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6000 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6002 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6005 (display (car args))
6006 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6008 (loop (cdr args)))))
6011 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6012 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6013 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6014 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6015 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6016 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6020 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6023 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6026 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6028 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6029 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6030 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6031 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6032 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6035 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6036 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6037 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6038 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6039 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6042 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6045 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6046 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6047 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6050 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6051 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6052 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6054 to see a backtrace, and
6055 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6056 to see them by default.
6060 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6062 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6064 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6065 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6068 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6069 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6070 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6071 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6074 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6075 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6076 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6077 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6078 functions which inspired them.
6080 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6081 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6085 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6087 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6089 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6090 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6093 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6094 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6095 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6097 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6098 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6099 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6100 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6101 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6103 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6105 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6106 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6107 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6110 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6113 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6115 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6116 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6117 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6118 above should serve their purposes.
6120 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6121 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6122 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6123 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6125 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6128 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6129 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6130 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6131 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6133 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6134 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6135 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6136 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6138 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6139 for the `read' function.
6142 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6143 to that of `integer?'.
6145 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6146 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6148 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6149 it simply returns the object's property list.
6151 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6152 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6153 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6154 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6156 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6158 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6161 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6163 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6164 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6166 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6168 void (*main_func) (),
6171 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6172 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6173 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6174 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6175 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6177 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6178 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6179 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6180 know which arguments have been processed.
6182 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6183 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6184 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6185 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6186 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6188 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6189 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6190 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6191 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6192 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6193 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6194 people from making that mistake.
6196 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6197 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6199 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6201 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6205 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6208 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6209 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6210 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6211 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6214 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6215 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6216 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6217 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6220 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6221 have been added to the Guile library.
6223 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6224 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6225 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6228 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6229 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6230 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6232 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6233 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6234 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6235 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6236 argument from the list.
6239 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6242 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6243 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6245 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6246 to a Scheme port object.
6248 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6249 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6254 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6256 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6257 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6258 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6259 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6260 code as a special datatype.
6262 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6263 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6264 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6265 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6266 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6269 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6270 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6271 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6272 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6273 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6275 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6278 Copyright information:
6280 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6282 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6283 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6284 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6285 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6287 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6288 of this document, or of portions of it,
6289 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6290 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6295 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"