1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
13 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
14 the the-last-stack fluid for the debugger to inspect or in able to
17 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
19 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
20 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
21 to be named `and-let*', of course.
23 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
24 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
26 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
31 (oop goops active-slot)
32 (oop goops composite-slot)
34 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
35 integrated into Guile.
39 (use-modules (oop goops))
41 access GOOPS bindings.
43 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
47 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
51 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
55 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
56 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
57 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
59 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
60 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
63 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
66 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
68 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
69 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
73 Asking for the type of an object
75 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
76 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
77 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
78 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
80 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
82 See further in the GOOPS manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory,
83 in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
85 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
87 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
88 in the default environment:
90 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
93 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
94 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
96 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
98 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
101 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
102 can be used for similar functionality.
104 ** New module (ice-9 match)
106 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
108 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
112 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
113 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
115 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
116 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
118 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
120 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
122 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
123 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
124 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
125 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
127 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
128 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
132 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
133 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
134 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
137 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
140 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
141 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
143 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
144 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
147 - The Revised^4 and Revised^5 Reports on the Algorithmic Language
148 Scheme (r4rs.texi and r5rs.texi).
150 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
152 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
154 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
156 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
157 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
159 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
163 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
164 (define m (make-safe-module))
165 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
166 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
167 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
169 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
171 ** The empty combination is no longer valid syntax.
173 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
174 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
175 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
177 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
179 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
180 libraries to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
181 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
182 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
185 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported.
186 What you should do instead now is to write a small Scheme file that
187 explicitly calls `dynamic-link' to load the shared library and
188 `dynamic-call' to initialize it.
190 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
191 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
193 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
195 (define-module (foo bar))
197 (dynamic-call "foobar_init" (dynamic-link "libguile-foo-bar"))
199 The file name passed to `dynamic-link' should not contain an
200 extension. It will be provided automatically.
202 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
204 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
205 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
206 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
207 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
210 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
211 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
212 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
213 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
214 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
215 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
216 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
217 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
218 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
219 one eval to the next.
221 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
222 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
223 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
224 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
225 subforms are at the top-level as well.
227 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
228 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
229 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
230 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
231 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
232 used in a lexical environment.
234 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
236 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
237 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
238 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
240 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
242 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
243 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
244 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
246 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
247 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
248 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
249 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
251 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
253 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
254 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
256 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
257 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
258 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
259 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
260 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
263 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
264 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
265 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
266 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
267 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
268 successful and #f if it wasn't.
270 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
271 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
272 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
273 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
274 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
276 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
277 objects are usually permanent.
279 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
280 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
282 ** New function `call-with-deprecation'
284 Call a thunk, displaying a deprecation message at the first call:
287 (call-with-deprecation "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead."
292 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
297 ** New function `make-object-property'
299 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
300 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
304 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
305 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
309 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
310 source properties eventually.
312 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
314 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
315 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
316 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
318 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
319 will be removed in the next release.
321 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
323 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
324 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
326 (scheme-report-environment 5)
328 (interaction-environment)
334 ** New define-module option: pure
336 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
341 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
344 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
346 Export names NAME1 ...
348 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
349 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
355 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
358 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
363 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
365 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
367 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
368 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
370 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
372 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
375 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
377 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
379 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
381 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
382 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
383 large strings. It will:
385 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
386 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
387 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
389 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
391 * read any characters that are currently available, without
392 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
394 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
395 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
397 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
398 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
400 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
401 are immediately available.
403 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
406 ** New function: object->string OBJ
408 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
410 ** New function: port? X
412 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
413 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
415 ** New function: file-port?
417 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
419 ** New function: port-for-each proc
421 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
422 return value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied
423 exactly once to every port that exists in the system at the time
424 PORT-FOR-EACH is invoked. Changes to the port table while
425 PORT-FOR-EACH is running have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is
428 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
430 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
431 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
432 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
433 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
434 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
437 ** New function: close-fdes fd
439 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
440 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
441 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
442 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
445 ** New function: crypt password salt
447 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
450 ** New function: chroot path
452 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
454 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
456 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
459 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
461 Get or set the priority of the running process.
463 ** New function: getpass prompt
465 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
468 ** New function: flock file operation
470 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
472 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
474 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
477 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
479 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
480 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
481 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
482 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
483 of the temporary file.
485 ** New function: open-input-string string
487 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
488 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
489 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
491 ** New function: open-output-string
493 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
494 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
496 ** New function: get-output-string
498 Return the contents of an output string port.
500 ** New function: identity
504 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
505 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
507 ** New function: inet-pton family address
509 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note
510 that unlike the C version of this function, the result is an
511 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
513 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
514 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
516 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
518 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note
519 that unlike the C version of this function, the input is an
520 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
522 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
523 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
524 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
528 Use `identity' instead.
530 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
532 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
533 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
534 port-for-each is more flexible.
536 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
537 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
538 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
540 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
542 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
544 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
546 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
548 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
550 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
551 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
553 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
554 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
556 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
557 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
559 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
561 * Changes to the gh_ interface
563 * Changes to the scm_ interface
565 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
567 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
568 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
569 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
571 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
573 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
575 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
576 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
577 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
580 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
582 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
584 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
585 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
587 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
589 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
590 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
591 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
592 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
594 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
595 scm_primitive_property_ref
596 scm_primitive_property_set_x
597 scm_primitive_property_del_x
599 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
600 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
602 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
604 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
605 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
606 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
607 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
609 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
611 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
612 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
613 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
614 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
615 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
616 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
617 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
619 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
620 scm_remember_upto_here
622 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
624 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
626 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
627 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
629 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
631 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
633 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
635 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
637 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
639 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
640 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
641 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
642 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
643 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
644 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
646 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
648 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
650 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
651 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
652 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
654 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
656 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
657 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
658 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
660 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
662 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
663 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
666 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
669 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
670 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
673 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
675 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
677 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
679 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
681 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
683 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
685 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
686 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
687 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
688 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
689 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
690 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
691 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
692 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
693 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
694 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
695 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
696 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
697 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
698 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
699 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
701 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
702 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
703 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
704 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
705 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
706 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
707 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
708 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
709 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
710 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
711 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
712 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
713 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
714 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
715 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
716 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
717 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
718 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
719 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
720 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
721 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
722 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
723 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
724 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
725 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
726 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
727 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
728 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
729 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
731 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
733 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
735 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
736 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
738 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
740 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
742 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
744 Use scm_string_hash instead.
746 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
748 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
750 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
752 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
754 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
756 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
758 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
761 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
762 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
764 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
766 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
768 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
770 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
772 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
774 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
776 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
778 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
782 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
784 * Changes to the distribution
786 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
788 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
789 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
790 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
791 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
792 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
793 obtain these programs.
794 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
795 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
797 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
798 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
799 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
800 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
801 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
803 However, this approach means that minor differences between
804 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
805 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
806 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
810 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
813 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
814 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
815 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
816 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
818 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
820 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
822 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
823 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
825 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
826 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
828 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
829 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
831 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
832 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
833 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
834 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
836 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
838 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
842 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
843 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
845 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
847 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
848 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
850 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
851 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
852 number of objects of that kind.
854 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
856 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
857 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
858 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
859 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
860 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
862 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
864 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
866 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
868 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
871 ** New module (ice-9 time)
873 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
875 ** New module (ice-9 history)
877 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
879 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
881 ** New command line option --debug
883 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
885 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
889 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
890 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
891 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
892 (help) gives this text
894 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
895 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
897 Examples: (help help)
899 (help "output-string")
901 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
903 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
905 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
906 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
909 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
910 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
911 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
914 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
915 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
916 use absolute filenames when possible.
918 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
919 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
920 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
923 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
925 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
926 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
927 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
928 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
930 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
932 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
934 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
935 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
936 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
938 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
939 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
940 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
942 (read-enable 'positions)
943 (debug-enable 'debug)
945 ** Backtraces in scripts
947 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
951 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
953 at the top of the script.
955 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
956 The second enables backtraces.)
958 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
960 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
961 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
962 substantially faster than before.
964 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
965 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
967 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
968 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
970 ** gc-thunk is deprecated
972 gc-thunk will be removed in next release of Guile. It has been
973 replaced by after-gc-hook.
975 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
977 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
978 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
979 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
981 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
982 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
983 when this hook is run in the future.
985 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
986 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
988 ** Improvements to garbage collector
990 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
991 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
994 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
995 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
996 more and more memory for certain programs.)
998 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
999 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1001 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1002 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1004 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1005 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1006 in order not to need further allocation.)
1008 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1011 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1012 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1013 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1014 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1016 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1018 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1021 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1023 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1026 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1027 GC in percent of total heap size
1030 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1031 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1033 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1035 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1036 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1038 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1040 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1041 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1043 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1045 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1046 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1050 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1051 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1053 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1055 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1057 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1059 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1061 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1063 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1064 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1066 (simple-format port message . args)
1067 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1068 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1069 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1070 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1071 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1072 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1073 Does not add a trailing newline."
1075 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1077 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1078 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1080 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1081 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1083 ** Deprecated: list*
1085 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1087 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1089 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1090 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1092 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1093 is returned as result.
1095 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1097 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1099 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1101 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1102 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1105 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1107 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1109 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1110 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1112 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1114 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1116 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1118 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1120 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1122 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1124 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1126 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1127 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1128 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1130 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1133 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1135 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1136 the readability of argument checking.
1138 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1140 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1142 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1144 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1145 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1146 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1147 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1148 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1149 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1150 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1152 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1154 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1156 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1157 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1159 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1161 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1162 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1165 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1167 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1168 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1169 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1171 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1172 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1173 implementation with gmp in the future.
1175 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1176 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1177 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1179 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1180 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1181 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1182 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1183 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1184 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1185 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1187 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1188 scm_end_input (object);
1189 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1190 ptob->flush (object);
1192 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1193 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1196 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1198 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1200 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1201 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1202 removed in a future version.
1204 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1206 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1207 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1208 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1209 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1211 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1212 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1214 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1217 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1219 in your configure.in.
1221 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1226 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1232 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1234 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1238 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1239 (define make-message string-append)
1241 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1243 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1247 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1252 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1256 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1258 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1259 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1261 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1263 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1264 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1265 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1266 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1267 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1268 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1270 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1271 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1272 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1274 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1275 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1276 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1279 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1280 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1281 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1282 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1283 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1285 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1286 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1287 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1288 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1289 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1290 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1291 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1293 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1295 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1296 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1297 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1299 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1300 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1301 KEY in the calling thread.
1303 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1304 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1305 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1306 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1307 associated with the key.
1309 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1311 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1312 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1314 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1316 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1317 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1318 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1320 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1322 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1323 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1325 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1327 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1329 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1330 returned is undefined.
1332 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1333 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1334 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1336 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1337 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1338 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1340 ** New C level GC hooks
1342 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1344 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1347 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1348 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1349 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1351 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1352 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1353 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1355 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1356 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1359 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1361 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1362 allocation parameters
1364 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1365 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1366 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1370 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1371 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1372 scm_default_max_segment_size
1374 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1376 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1377 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1379 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1381 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1382 object and count on the object being protected until
1383 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1385 The functions also have better time complexity.
1387 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1388 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1389 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1390 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1391 are no longer needed.
1393 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1395 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1396 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1397 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1398 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1400 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1402 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1404 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1406 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1407 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1408 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1409 until this issue has been settled.
1411 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1413 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1415 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1418 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1420 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1422 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1423 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1424 descriptors were checked.
1426 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1427 atomically written to a pipe.
1429 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1430 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1431 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1432 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1433 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1434 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1435 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1438 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1439 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1440 is changed without calling tzset.
1442 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1444 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1445 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1446 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1448 (define write-network-long
1449 (lambda (value port)
1450 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1451 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1452 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1454 (define read-network-long
1456 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1457 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1458 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1460 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1461 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1463 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1464 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1465 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1466 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1468 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1469 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1470 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1471 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1475 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1477 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1481 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1482 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1483 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1489 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1490 for a description of available commands.
1492 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1493 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1494 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1496 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1498 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1499 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1501 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1503 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1505 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1506 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1507 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1508 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1509 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1510 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1513 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1515 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1516 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1517 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1518 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1520 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1521 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1523 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1525 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1527 ** Readline support has changed again.
1529 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1530 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1531 to activate readline is now
1533 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1536 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1538 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1539 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1540 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1543 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1544 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1545 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1548 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1549 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1550 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1551 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1552 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1553 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1555 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1556 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1558 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1560 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1561 object it receives is the same string passed to
1562 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1563 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1564 string, not the suffix.
1566 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1567 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1568 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1570 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1572 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1573 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1574 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1575 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1578 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1580 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1582 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1583 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1584 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1585 appear from left to right.
1587 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1590 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1592 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1593 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1595 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1599 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1601 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1603 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1605 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1606 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1607 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1609 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1611 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1613 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1615 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1618 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1620 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1621 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1622 mentioning it here anyway.
1624 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1626 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1627 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1628 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1629 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1632 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1634 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1636 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1638 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1639 otherwise return #f.
1641 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1643 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1644 returned by `opendir'.
1646 ** New function: using-readline?
1648 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1650 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1652 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1653 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1655 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1657 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1659 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1660 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1661 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1663 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1665 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1666 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1668 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1670 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1671 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1672 documentation slots are not yet used.
1674 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1676 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1677 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1678 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1683 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1684 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1685 (string-append x y))
1687 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1688 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1690 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1691 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1692 be made in a clean way.]
1694 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1696 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1698 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1700 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1701 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1703 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1705 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1707 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1709 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1711 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1712 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1713 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1714 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1717 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1719 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1721 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1723 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1725 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1726 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1728 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1730 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1732 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1734 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1736 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1737 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1738 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1739 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1740 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1741 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1743 This should not make any difference for most users.
1745 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1747 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1748 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1750 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1752 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1753 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1754 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1755 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1756 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1758 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1760 It is now replaced by:
1762 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1764 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1765 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1767 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1769 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1770 This might change when we get the new module system.
1772 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1776 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1778 * Changes to mailing lists
1780 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1782 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1785 * Changes to the distribution
1787 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1789 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1790 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1791 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1792 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1793 you explicitly specify it.
1795 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1796 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1797 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1798 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1799 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1802 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1803 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1804 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1805 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1807 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1808 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1809 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1812 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1814 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1817 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1819 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1821 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1822 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1823 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1824 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1826 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1827 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1830 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1832 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
1833 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
1834 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
1835 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
1836 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
1837 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
1838 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
1839 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
1851 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
1852 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
1853 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
1854 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
1855 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
1860 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
1861 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
1869 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
1874 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
1875 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
1878 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
1879 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
1880 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
1881 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
1883 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
1885 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
1887 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
1888 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
1890 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
1892 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
1894 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
1895 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
1897 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
1900 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
1902 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
1904 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
1906 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
1908 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
1910 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
1912 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
1913 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
1914 when the hook was created.
1916 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
1917 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
1918 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
1919 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
1920 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
1921 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
1922 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
1923 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
1924 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
1926 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
1927 the dlopen family of functions.
1929 ** New function `provided?'
1931 - Function: provided? FEATURE
1932 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
1933 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
1934 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
1936 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
1938 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
1939 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
1940 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
1941 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1944 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1945 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
1946 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
1947 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
1949 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
1950 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
1951 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
1954 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
1955 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
1956 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
1957 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
1958 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
1959 but with the flag set.
1961 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
1963 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
1964 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
1966 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
1967 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
1968 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
1969 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
1970 available Scheme format implementations.
1972 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
1973 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
1974 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
1975 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
1976 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
1977 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
1978 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
1979 output is to the current error port if available by the
1980 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
1983 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
1984 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
1985 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
1986 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
1987 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
1988 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
1989 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
1990 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
1992 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
1993 be executed at a time.
1996 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
1998 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
1999 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2000 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2002 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2003 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2004 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2005 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2006 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2007 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2008 general form of a directive is:
2010 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2012 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2014 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2016 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2017 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2018 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2021 Any (print as `display' does).
2025 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2029 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2033 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2039 print number sign always.
2042 print comma separated.
2044 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2050 print number sign always.
2053 print comma separated.
2055 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2061 print number sign always.
2064 print comma separated.
2066 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2072 print number sign always.
2075 print comma separated.
2077 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2082 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2086 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2089 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2092 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2095 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2100 prints `y' and `ies'.
2103 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2106 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2111 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2115 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2118 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2119 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2121 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2124 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2125 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2127 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2130 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2132 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2134 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2137 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2139 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2141 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2144 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2147 The sign appears before the padding.
2155 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2157 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2162 print N page separators.
2172 newline is ignored, white space left.
2175 newline is left, white space ignored.
2180 relative tabulation.
2186 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2188 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2191 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2193 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2196 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2199 converts by `string-upcase'.
2202 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2204 jumps N arguments forward.
2207 jumps 1 argument backward.
2210 jumps N arguments backward.
2213 jumps to the 0th argument.
2216 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2218 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2219 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2221 take argument from N.
2224 true test conditional.
2227 if-else-then conditional.
2233 default clause follows.
2236 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2238 at most N iterations.
2241 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2244 args from the rest of arguments.
2247 args from the rest args (lists).
2258 aborts if N <= M <= K
2260 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2263 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2266 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2272 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2274 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2276 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2277 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2278 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2279 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2280 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2281 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2285 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2289 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2295 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2298 Print a `#\space' character
2300 print N `#\space' characters.
2303 Print a `#\tab' character
2305 print N `#\tab' characters.
2308 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2309 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2310 must be a positive decimal number.
2313 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2314 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2315 be processed by `read'.
2318 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2319 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2320 be processed by `read'.
2323 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2326 prints format version.
2329 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2330 and format it accordingly.
2332 *** Configuration Variables
2334 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2335 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2336 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2337 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2340 format:symbol-case-conv
2341 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2342 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2343 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2344 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2345 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2347 format:iobj-case-conv
2348 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2349 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2352 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2355 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2361 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2362 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2363 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2364 `format' padding style.
2367 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2368 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2369 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2370 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2374 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2375 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2376 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2379 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2380 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2381 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2382 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2383 parameters or modifiers)).
2386 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2388 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2390 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2391 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2393 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2394 string-downcase! functions.
2396 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2397 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2399 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2402 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2405 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2406 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2408 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2410 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2411 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2413 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2414 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2415 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2416 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2417 would if STRING were input.
2419 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2421 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2422 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2423 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2424 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2427 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2429 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2430 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2433 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2435 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2436 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2438 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2439 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2441 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2442 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2443 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2444 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2446 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2447 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2449 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2450 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2451 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2453 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2454 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2456 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2457 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2458 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2459 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2460 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2462 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2463 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2464 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2465 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2466 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2467 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2469 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2470 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2471 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2474 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2475 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2476 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2477 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2478 the following grammar:
2479 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2480 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2481 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2482 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2483 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2484 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2485 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2486 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2487 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2488 last option in its combination)
2490 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2491 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2492 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2493 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2495 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2496 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2497 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2499 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2500 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2501 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2503 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2504 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2505 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2506 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2507 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2508 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2509 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2510 ordinary argument strings.
2512 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2513 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2514 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2515 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2517 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2518 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2520 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2521 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2522 - a required option is omitted
2523 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2524 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2525 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2526 - an option predicate fails
2531 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2534 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2535 (verbose (required? #f)
2538 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2539 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2540 (predicate ,string?))))
2542 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2543 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2545 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2546 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2547 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2548 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2551 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2553 It will be removed in a few releases.
2555 ** New syntax: lambda*
2556 ** New syntax: define*
2557 ** New syntax: define*-public
2558 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2559 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2560 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2562 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2563 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2564 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2565 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2566 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2568 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2569 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2570 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2572 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2574 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2575 and examples for `lambda*':
2578 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2580 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2581 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2582 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2583 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2584 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2585 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2586 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2587 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2589 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2591 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2592 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2593 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2594 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2596 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2597 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2598 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2599 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2600 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2601 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2602 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2603 and until the procedure is called.
2605 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2607 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2608 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2609 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2610 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2611 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2612 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2613 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2614 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2615 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2616 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2618 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2619 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2620 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2621 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2624 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2626 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2627 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2628 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2629 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2631 ** New syntax: and-let*
2632 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2634 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2635 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2636 (<variable> <expression>)
2639 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2640 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2641 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2644 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2645 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2646 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2647 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2648 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2649 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2650 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2652 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2653 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2654 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2655 shadow earlier bindings.
2657 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2659 ** New sorting functions
2661 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2662 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2663 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2664 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2666 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2667 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2670 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2671 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2672 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2674 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2675 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2676 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2677 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2679 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2680 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2681 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2682 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2683 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2686 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2687 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2688 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2689 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2690 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2691 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2693 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2694 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2695 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2697 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2698 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2699 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2702 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2703 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2704 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2706 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2707 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2709 ** New built-in random number support
2711 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2712 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2713 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2714 returned have a uniform distribution.
2716 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2717 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2718 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2719 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2720 effect of the `random' operation.
2722 *** New variable: *random-state*
2723 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2724 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2725 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2726 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2727 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2730 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2731 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2732 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2733 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2734 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2736 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2737 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2738 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2739 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2740 initialized using SEED.
2742 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2743 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2744 range between 0 and 1.
2746 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2747 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2748 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2749 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2750 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2751 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2752 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2754 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2755 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2756 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2757 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2758 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2759 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2761 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2762 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2763 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2764 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2766 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2767 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2768 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2769 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2771 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2772 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2773 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2775 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2777 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2780 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2781 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2784 ** New function: make-guardian
2785 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2786 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2787 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2788 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2789 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2791 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2792 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2793 one object if at all.
2795 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2796 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2797 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2799 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2800 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2801 read again in last-in first-out order.
2803 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2804 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2806 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2808 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2809 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2810 file position is used.
2812 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2813 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2814 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2816 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2817 redefined using seek.
2819 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2820 size is not supplied.
2822 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2823 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2825 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2826 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2828 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2830 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2831 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2832 and returns the contents as a single string.
2834 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
2835 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
2836 lists in serial order.
2838 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
2839 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
2840 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
2842 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
2843 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
2844 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
2845 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
2847 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
2848 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
2849 and #f if an error occured.
2851 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
2853 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
2854 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
2855 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
2856 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
2858 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
2860 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
2863 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
2865 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
2868 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2872 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
2873 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
2875 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
2876 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
2880 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2882 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
2884 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2885 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2887 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2889 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
2890 might change when we get the new module system.
2892 ** The smob interface
2894 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
2895 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
2897 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
2899 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
2903 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
2904 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
2905 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
2906 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
2907 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
2908 will be freed by the default free function.
2910 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2911 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
2912 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2913 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2915 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2916 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
2917 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2918 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2920 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
2922 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
2923 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
2927 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
2928 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2929 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2931 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
2932 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
2933 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2934 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2936 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
2937 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
2938 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
2940 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
2941 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
2942 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
2943 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
2945 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
2946 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
2947 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
2949 *** scm_newptob has been removed
2953 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
2955 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
2956 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
2957 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
2959 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
2960 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
2961 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
2963 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
2964 a string port's buffer.
2966 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
2967 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
2968 function pointers which together define the current random number
2969 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
2970 number library functions.
2972 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
2975 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
2976 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
2979 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
2980 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2982 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
2983 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
2985 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
2986 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
2989 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
2990 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
2991 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
2992 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
2994 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
2995 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
2996 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
2997 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
2998 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
2999 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3000 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3002 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3003 by libguile and the application.
3005 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3006 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3007 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3008 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3010 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3011 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3013 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3014 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3015 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3017 ** Random number library functions
3018 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3019 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3020 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3022 The default random state is stored in:
3024 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3025 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3026 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3031 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3033 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3034 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3035 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3036 isn't a random state.
3038 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3039 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3041 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3042 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3043 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3044 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3046 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3047 Return 32 random bits.
3049 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3050 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3052 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3053 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3055 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3056 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3058 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3059 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3061 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3062 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3063 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3067 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3069 * Changes to the distribution
3071 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3072 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3073 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3076 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3077 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3078 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3080 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3081 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3082 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3083 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3086 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3087 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3088 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3090 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3092 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3094 *** Function: batch-mode?
3096 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3099 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3101 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3102 case has not been implemented.
3104 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3105 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3106 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3109 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3110 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3112 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3114 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3116 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3118 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3119 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3122 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3123 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3124 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3125 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3128 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3130 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3131 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3132 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3133 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3134 find those libraries.
3136 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3137 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3140 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3142 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3143 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3144 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3145 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3147 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3148 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3149 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3153 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3155 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3156 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3157 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3160 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3161 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3162 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3163 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3165 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3166 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3169 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3170 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3171 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3172 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3173 compiler where to find the libraries.
3175 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3176 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3177 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3179 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3180 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3181 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3182 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3183 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3187 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3189 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3190 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3191 internationalization support.
3193 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3194 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3195 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3196 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3197 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3199 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3200 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3201 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3202 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3203 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3205 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3206 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3207 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3208 any GNU mirror site.
3210 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3212 ** New function: add-history STRING
3213 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3214 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3215 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3217 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3219 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3220 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3221 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3224 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3225 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3226 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3228 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3230 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3233 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3234 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3237 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3238 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3239 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3240 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3241 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3242 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3244 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3245 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3246 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3247 of the form mentioned above.
3249 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3250 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3251 returned in the special `rest' list.
3253 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3254 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3256 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3258 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3260 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3262 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3263 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3264 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3265 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3266 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3267 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3268 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3269 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3272 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3274 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3276 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3277 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3280 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3281 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3282 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3286 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3287 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3288 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3289 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3290 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3291 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3292 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3293 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3296 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3298 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3299 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3300 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3302 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3304 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3305 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3307 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3308 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3309 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3311 Why do we have this function?
3312 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3313 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3314 primitive, and display it differently, and
3315 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3316 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3319 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3320 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3323 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3324 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3325 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3326 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3328 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3329 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3332 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3333 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3335 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3337 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3338 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3339 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3340 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3341 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3342 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3343 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3346 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3348 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3349 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3351 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3352 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3353 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3354 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3355 properly continue the print chain.
3357 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3358 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3359 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3360 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3361 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3362 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3363 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3364 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3366 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3367 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3368 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3369 safest to not check for these pairs.
3371 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3372 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3373 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3374 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3376 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3378 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3379 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3381 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3383 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3385 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3386 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3387 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3389 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3390 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3391 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3393 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3394 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3395 the following functions and macros:
3397 Function: make-fluid
3399 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3400 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3401 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3402 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3403 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3405 Function: fluid? OBJ
3407 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3409 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3410 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3412 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3413 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3415 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3417 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3418 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3419 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3420 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3421 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3422 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3423 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3425 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3427 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3428 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3429 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3430 should evaluate to a fluid.
3432 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3434 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3435 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3436 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3437 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3438 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3440 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3443 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3445 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3447 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3449 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3452 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3453 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3454 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3455 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3456 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3459 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3460 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3461 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3463 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3464 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3465 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3467 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3468 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3469 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3470 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3472 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3473 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3474 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3475 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3477 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3478 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3479 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3480 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3482 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3483 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3484 their revealed counts set to zero.
3486 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3487 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3489 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3490 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3492 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3493 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3495 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3496 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3497 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3499 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3500 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3501 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3503 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3504 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3505 default environment inherited by child processes.
3507 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3508 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3509 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3511 The return value is unspecified.
3513 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3514 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3515 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3516 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3517 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3519 The return value is unspecified.
3521 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3522 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3530 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3531 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3534 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3537 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3538 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3539 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3541 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3542 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3543 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3544 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3547 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3548 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3550 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3551 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3552 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3553 the `environ' procedure.
3555 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3556 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3559 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3560 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3562 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3563 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3564 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3565 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3567 *** procedure: times
3568 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3569 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3570 return a selected component:
3573 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3577 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3580 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3584 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3585 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3589 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3590 terminated child processes.
3592 ** Removed: list-length
3593 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3594 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3596 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3598 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3600 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3602 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3603 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3604 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3605 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3607 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3608 extra complexity it introduces.
3610 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3611 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3613 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3614 variable to any non-empty value.
3616 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3617 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3619 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3621 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3622 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3624 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3626 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3627 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3629 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3631 ** vector handling routines
3633 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3634 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3635 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3636 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3637 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3639 ** pair and list routines
3641 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3644 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3646 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3649 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3651 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3653 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3654 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3655 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3656 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3657 site-specific initialization code.
3659 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3660 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3661 initialization processes.
3663 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3664 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3665 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3666 initialized properly.
3668 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3669 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3670 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3672 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3673 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3674 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3675 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3676 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3678 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3680 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3681 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3682 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3683 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3684 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3686 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3687 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3688 which look like this:
3691 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3693 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3694 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3697 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3698 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3701 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3703 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3704 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3705 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3707 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3708 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3709 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3710 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3711 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3713 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3714 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3716 int (*free) (SCM port);
3717 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3718 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3719 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3723 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3724 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3725 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3727 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3730 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3731 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3732 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3734 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3735 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3736 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3739 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3743 struct timeval *timeout);
3745 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3746 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3747 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3748 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3749 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3750 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3752 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3753 scm_catch_body_t body,
3755 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3758 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3759 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3760 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3761 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3762 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3763 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3765 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3767 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3770 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3771 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3772 spawning threads from application C code.
3774 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3775 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3776 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3777 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3778 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3779 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3781 ** Removed functions:
3783 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3784 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3786 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3788 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3789 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3791 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3793 ** mbstrings are now removed
3795 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3796 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3798 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3800 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3801 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3802 their new names and arguments:
3804 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3805 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3806 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3807 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3810 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3812 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3814 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3817 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3819 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3820 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3821 pass a #f arg to catch.
3823 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3825 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3826 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3829 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3830 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3831 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3832 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
3833 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
3834 reclaim its storage.
3836 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
3837 worrying that some other function you call will call
3838 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
3839 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
3840 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
3841 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
3844 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
3846 * Changes to the distribution
3848 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
3849 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
3852 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
3853 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
3855 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3856 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3858 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
3860 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
3861 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
3862 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
3864 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3866 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
3867 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
3868 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
3869 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
3870 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
3871 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
3873 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
3874 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
3875 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
3878 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
3879 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
3880 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
3881 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
3883 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
3884 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
3885 libraries to your link command:
3887 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
3888 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
3889 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
3890 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
3892 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
3893 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
3894 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
3896 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3898 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
3899 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
3902 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
3904 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
3905 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
3906 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
3907 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
3908 searched is system dependent.
3910 (dynamic-object? VAL)
3912 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
3914 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
3916 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
3917 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
3919 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3921 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
3922 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
3923 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
3924 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
3925 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
3928 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3930 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
3931 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
3932 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
3933 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
3934 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
3936 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
3938 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
3939 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
3941 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
3943 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
3944 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
3945 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
3948 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
3950 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
3951 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
3952 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
3953 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
3955 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
3956 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
3958 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
3960 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
3961 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
3963 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
3965 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
3966 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
3974 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
3976 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
3977 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
3978 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
3979 a more informative way.
3981 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
3982 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
3983 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
3984 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
3985 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
3986 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
3988 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
3989 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
3992 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
3993 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
3994 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
3997 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
3998 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
3999 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4000 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4001 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4002 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4004 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4005 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4006 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4007 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4010 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4011 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4012 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4013 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4014 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4015 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4017 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4018 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4019 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4020 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4021 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4023 *** regexp functions
4025 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4026 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4027 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4029 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4030 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4031 with SCSH regular expressions.
4033 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4034 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4035 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4036 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4038 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4039 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4040 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4041 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4043 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4044 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4045 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4046 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4047 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4048 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4050 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4051 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4052 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4053 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4054 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4056 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4058 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4059 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4060 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4061 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4063 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4064 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4065 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4067 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4068 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4070 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4073 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4074 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4075 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4077 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4078 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4079 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4081 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4082 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4083 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4084 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4085 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4088 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4090 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4091 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4092 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4093 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4094 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4095 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4097 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4098 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4099 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4101 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4102 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4105 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4106 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4108 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4109 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4110 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4111 may be one of the following arguments:
4113 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4115 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4117 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4118 the regexp match is written.
4120 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4121 following the regexp match is written.
4123 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4124 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4127 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4128 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4129 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4130 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4131 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4132 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4134 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4137 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4138 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4139 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4140 written out to PORT.
4142 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4143 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4144 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4145 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4146 will return after processing a single match.
4148 *** Match Structures
4150 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4151 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4152 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4153 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4154 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4155 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4158 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4159 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4160 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4161 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4162 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4164 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4165 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4166 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4168 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4169 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4170 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4171 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4172 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4174 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4175 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4177 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4178 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4180 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4181 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4183 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4184 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4186 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4187 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4188 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4189 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4191 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4192 Return the original TARGET string.
4194 *** Backslash Escapes
4196 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4197 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4198 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4199 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4200 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4201 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4203 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4204 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4205 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4206 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4207 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4208 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4209 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4210 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4212 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4213 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4214 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4215 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4216 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4217 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4218 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4220 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4221 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4222 return the resulting string.
4224 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4225 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4226 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4227 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4228 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4229 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4230 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4231 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4232 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4233 translated to the single character `*'.
4235 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4236 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4237 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4238 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4239 consecutive backslashes:
4241 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4243 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4244 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4245 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4247 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4248 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4249 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4250 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4251 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4252 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4254 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4256 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4257 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4258 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4259 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4260 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4261 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4262 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4263 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4264 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4265 cumbersome escape syntax.
4267 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4269 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4271 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4273 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4276 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4278 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4280 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4283 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4284 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4285 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4286 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4287 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4289 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4290 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4291 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4292 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4293 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4294 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4295 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4298 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4299 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4300 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4303 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4304 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4306 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4307 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4308 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4309 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4310 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4311 installed, you can say:
4313 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4316 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4318 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4319 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4320 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4321 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4322 new dynamic roots and threads.
4325 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4327 * Changes to the distribution.
4329 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4331 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4332 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4333 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4334 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4335 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4336 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4337 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4338 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4340 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4343 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4344 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4349 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4351 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4352 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4354 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4355 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4356 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4357 the (command-line) function.
4358 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4359 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4360 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4362 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4363 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4364 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4365 command line arguments
4366 -ds do -s script at this point
4367 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4368 -h, --help display this help and exit
4369 -v, --version display version information and exit
4370 \ read arguments from following script lines
4372 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4373 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4375 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4378 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4382 (main (command-line))
4384 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4386 ekko a speckled gecko
4388 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4389 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4390 following list of command-line arguments:
4392 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4394 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4395 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4396 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4397 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4398 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4400 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4402 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4404 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4405 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4408 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4409 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4410 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4411 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4413 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4414 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4415 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4416 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4418 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4422 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4426 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4428 ekko a speckled gecko
4430 Unix expands this into
4432 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4434 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4435 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4437 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4439 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4440 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4442 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4443 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4444 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4445 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4446 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4447 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4448 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4449 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4450 it only terminates the argument list.)
4451 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4452 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4453 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4454 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4455 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4456 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4457 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4458 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4460 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4462 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4463 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4464 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4465 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4466 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4468 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4469 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4470 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4472 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4474 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4475 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4476 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4477 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4480 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4481 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4482 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4484 * Changes to Scheme functions
4486 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4487 and disabled by default.
4489 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4490 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4491 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4492 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4494 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4496 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4498 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4499 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4501 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4502 (read-set! keywords #f)
4504 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4505 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4506 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4509 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4510 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4511 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4514 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4515 support for Scheme functions.
4517 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4518 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4519 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4520 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4523 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4524 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4525 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4528 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4529 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4530 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4533 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4534 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4535 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4536 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4537 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4538 display the result as a prompt.
4539 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4541 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4542 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4543 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4546 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4547 procedure of zero arguments.
4549 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4550 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4551 argument is bound in the current module.
4553 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4554 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4555 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4556 public bindings into the current module.
4558 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4559 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4561 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4562 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4564 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4565 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4567 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4568 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4570 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4571 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4573 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4574 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4575 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4576 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4577 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4579 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4580 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4581 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4582 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4584 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4587 ** Changes to I/O functions
4589 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4590 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4591 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4593 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4594 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4595 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4597 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4598 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4600 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4601 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4602 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4603 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4605 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4607 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4608 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4610 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4611 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4612 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4613 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4614 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4617 'trim omit delimiter from result
4618 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4619 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4620 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4622 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4624 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4625 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4627 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4628 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4629 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4630 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4631 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4633 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4634 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4635 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4637 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4638 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4639 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4640 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4642 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4643 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4645 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4646 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4648 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4650 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4651 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4652 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4653 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4654 a delimiting character.
4655 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4657 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4658 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4659 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4660 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4661 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4662 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4664 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4665 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4667 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4668 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4669 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4671 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4672 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4673 the array to read and write.
4675 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4676 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4679 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4681 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4684 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4685 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4686 Values for COMMAND are:
4688 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4689 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4690 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4691 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4692 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4693 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4694 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4695 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4697 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4699 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4700 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4701 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4702 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4703 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4704 corresponding return set will be the same.
4706 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4709 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4710 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4711 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4712 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4713 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4714 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4715 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4716 special file being created.
4718 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4719 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4721 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4722 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4723 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4724 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4725 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4726 and originating address.
4728 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4729 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4730 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4732 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4735 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4736 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4739 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4740 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4741 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4742 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4743 this function returns #f.
4745 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4746 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4747 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4750 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4751 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4752 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4755 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4756 a valid STATUS value.
4758 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4760 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4761 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4763 Component Accessor Setter
4764 ========================= ============ ============
4765 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4766 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4767 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4768 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4769 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4770 year tm:year set-tm:year
4771 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4772 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4773 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4774 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4775 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4777 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4778 describing the host system:
4781 ============================================== ================
4782 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4783 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4784 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4785 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4786 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4788 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4789 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4790 system's user database:
4793 ====================== =================
4794 user name passwd:name
4795 user password passwd:passwd
4798 real name passwd:gecos
4799 home directory passwd:dir
4800 shell program passwd:shell
4802 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4803 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4804 system's group database:
4807 ======================= ============
4808 group name group:name
4809 group password group:passwd
4811 group members group:mem
4813 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4814 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4818 ========================= ===============
4819 official name of host hostent:name
4820 alias list hostent:aliases
4821 host address type hostent:addrtype
4822 length of address hostent:length
4823 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4825 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4826 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4830 ========================= ===============
4831 official name of net netent:name
4832 alias list netent:aliases
4833 net number type netent:addrtype
4834 net number netent:net
4836 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
4837 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
4841 ========================= ===============
4842 official protocol name protoent:name
4843 alias list protoent:aliases
4844 protocol number protoent:proto
4846 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
4847 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
4851 ========================= ===============
4852 official service name servent:name
4853 alias list servent:aliases
4854 port number servent:port
4855 protocol to use servent:proto
4857 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
4858 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
4861 ======================================== ===============
4862 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
4863 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
4864 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
4865 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
4867 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
4868 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
4869 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
4871 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
4872 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
4874 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
4875 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
4877 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
4878 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
4880 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
4882 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
4884 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
4885 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
4886 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
4888 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
4889 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
4890 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
4891 return the remaining characters as a string.
4893 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
4894 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
4895 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
4897 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
4899 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4901 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
4904 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
4907 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
4908 and returns the array
4910 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
4911 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
4912 the user to interpret the data both ways.
4914 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4916 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
4917 symbol's value from C code:
4919 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
4920 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
4921 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
4922 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
4924 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
4925 without assigning them a value.
4927 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
4928 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
4929 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
4931 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
4932 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
4933 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
4935 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
4936 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
4938 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
4939 doesn't actually care about that.
4941 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
4942 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
4943 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
4945 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
4946 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
4947 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
4948 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
4949 which we have just created and initialized.
4951 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
4952 should one occur. We call it like this:
4953 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
4955 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
4956 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
4957 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
4958 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
4959 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
4960 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
4963 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
4964 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
4965 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
4966 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
4967 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
4968 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
4969 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
4972 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
4973 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
4974 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
4975 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
4976 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
4979 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
4980 scm_internal_catch, except:
4982 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
4983 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
4984 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
4985 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
4988 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
4989 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
4990 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
4992 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
4993 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
4994 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
4995 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
4998 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
4999 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5000 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5002 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5003 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5004 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5005 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5006 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5008 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5009 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5010 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5012 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5013 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5014 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5016 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5017 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5019 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5020 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5021 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5024 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5025 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5026 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5027 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5028 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5029 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5030 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5033 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5034 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5036 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5037 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5038 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5039 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5040 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5043 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5044 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5046 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5047 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5050 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5051 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5053 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5056 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5057 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5058 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5059 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5060 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5061 given the following arguments:
5063 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5065 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5067 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5069 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5072 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5073 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5074 command-line arguments.
5076 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5077 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5078 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5079 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5080 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5081 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5084 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5087 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5088 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5090 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5091 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5093 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5094 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5095 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5096 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5098 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5099 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5101 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5102 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5103 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5104 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5106 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5107 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5109 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5110 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5112 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5114 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5115 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5116 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5119 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5120 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5122 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5123 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5128 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5131 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5133 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5134 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5135 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5136 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5138 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5140 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5142 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5143 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5144 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5145 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5146 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5147 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5148 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5149 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5150 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5151 for more information.
5153 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5154 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5156 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5157 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5158 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5159 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5160 following two lines at the top of the file:
5162 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5165 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5166 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5167 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5169 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5171 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5173 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5176 (display (car args))
5177 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5179 (loop (cdr args)))))
5182 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5183 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5184 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5185 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5186 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5187 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5191 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5194 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5197 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5199 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5200 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5201 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5202 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5203 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5206 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5207 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5208 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5209 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5210 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5213 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5216 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5217 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5218 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5221 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5222 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5223 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5225 to see a backtrace, and
5226 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5227 to see them by default.
5231 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5233 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5235 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5236 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5239 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5240 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5241 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5242 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5245 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5246 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5247 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5248 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5249 functions which inspired them.
5251 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5252 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5256 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5258 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5260 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5261 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5264 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5265 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5266 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5268 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5269 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5270 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5271 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5272 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5274 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5276 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5277 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5278 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5281 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5284 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5286 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5287 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5288 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5289 above should serve their purposes.
5291 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5292 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5293 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5294 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5296 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5299 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5300 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5301 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5302 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5304 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5305 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5306 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5307 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5309 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5310 for the `read' function.
5313 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5314 to that of `integer?'.
5316 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5317 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5319 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5320 it simply returns the object's property list.
5322 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5323 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5324 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5325 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5327 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5329 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5332 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5334 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5335 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5337 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5339 void (*main_func) (),
5342 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5343 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5344 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5345 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5346 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5348 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5349 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5350 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5351 know which arguments have been processed.
5353 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5354 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5355 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5356 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5357 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5359 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5360 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5361 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5362 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5363 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5364 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5365 people from making that mistake.
5367 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5368 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5370 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5372 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5376 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5379 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5380 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5381 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5382 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5385 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5386 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5387 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5388 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5391 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5392 have been added to the Guile library.
5394 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5395 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5396 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5399 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5400 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5401 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5403 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5404 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5405 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5406 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5407 argument from the list.
5410 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5413 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5414 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5416 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5417 to a Scheme port object.
5419 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5420 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5425 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5427 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5428 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5429 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5430 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5431 code as a special datatype.
5433 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5434 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5435 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5436 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5437 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5440 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5441 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5442 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5443 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5444 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5446 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5449 Copyright information:
5451 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5453 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5454 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5455 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5456 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5458 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5459 of this document, or of portions of it,
5460 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5461 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5466 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"