1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Changes in 2.0.5 (since 2.0.4):
10 This release fixes the binary interface information (SONAME) of
11 libguile, which was incorrect in 2.0.4. It does not contain other
15 Changes in 2.0.4 (since 2.0.3):
19 ** Better debuggability for interpreted procedures.
21 Guile 2.0 came with a great debugging experience for compiled
22 procedures, but the story for interpreted procedures was terrible. Now,
23 at least, interpreted procedures have names, and the `arity' procedure
24 property is always correct (or, as correct as it can be, in the presence
27 ** Support for cross-compilation.
29 One can now use a native Guile to cross-compile `.go' files for a
30 different architecture. See the documentation for `--target' in the
31 "Compilation" section of the manual, for information on how to use the
32 cross-compiler. See the "Cross building Guile" section of the README,
33 for more on how to cross-compile Guile itself.
35 ** The return of `local-eval'.
37 Back by popular demand, `the-environment' and `local-eval' allow the
38 user to capture a lexical environment, and then evaluate arbitrary
39 expressions in that context. There is also a new `local-compile'
40 command. See "Local Evaluation" in the manual, for more. Special
41 thanks to Mark Weaver for an initial implementation of this feature.
43 ** Fluids can now have default values.
45 Fluids are used for dynamic and thread-local binding. They have always
46 inherited their values from the context or thread that created them.
47 However, there was a case in which a new thread would enter Guile, and
48 the default values of all the fluids would be `#f' for that thread.
50 This has now been fixed so that `make-fluid' has an optional default
51 value for fluids in unrelated dynamic roots, which defaults to `#f'.
53 ** Garbage collector tuning.
55 The garbage collector has now been tuned to run more often under some
58 *** Unmanaged allocation
60 The new `scm_gc_register_allocation' function will notify the collector
61 of unmanaged allocation. This will cause the collector to run sooner.
62 Guile's `scm_malloc', `scm_calloc', and `scm_realloc' unmanaged
63 allocators eventually call this function. This leads to better
64 performance under steady-state unmanaged allocation.
66 *** Transient allocation
68 When the collector runs, it will try to record the total memory
69 footprint of a process, if the platform supports this information. If
70 the memory footprint is growing, the collector will run more frequently.
71 This reduces the increase of the resident size of a process in response
72 to a transient increase in allocation.
74 *** Management of threads, bignums
76 Creating a thread will allocate a fair amount of memory. Guile now does
77 some GC work (using `GC_collect_a_little') when allocating a thread.
78 This leads to a better memory footprint when creating many short-lived
81 Similarly, bignums can occupy a lot of memory. Guile now offers hooks
82 to enable custom GMP allocators that end up calling
83 `scm_gc_register_allocation'. These allocators are enabled by default
84 when running Guile from the command-line. To enable them in libraries,
85 set the `scm_install_gmp_memory_functions' variable to a nonzero value
88 ** SRFI-39 parameters are available by default.
90 Guile now includes support for parameters, as defined by SRFI-39, in the
91 default environment. See "Parameters" in the manual, for more
92 information. `current-input-port', `current-output-port', and
93 `current-error-port' are now parameters.
95 ** Add `current-warning-port'.
97 Guile now outputs warnings on a separate port, `current-warning-port',
98 initialized to the value that `current-error-port' has on startup.
100 ** Syntax parameters.
102 Following Racket's lead, Guile now supports syntax parameters. See
103 "Syntax parameters" in the manual, for more.
105 Also see Barzilay, Culpepper, and Flatt's 2011 SFP workshop paper,
106 "Keeping it Clean with syntax-parameterize".
108 ** Parse command-line arguments from the locale encoding.
110 Guile now attempts to parse command-line arguments using the user's
111 locale. However for backwards compatibility with other 2.0.x releases,
112 it does so without actually calling `setlocale'. Please report any bugs
113 in this facility to bug-guile@gnu.org.
115 ** One-armed conditionals: `when' and `unless'
117 Guile finally has `when' and `unless' in the default environment. Use
118 them whenever you would use an `if' with only one branch. See
119 "Conditionals" in the manual, for more.
121 ** `current-filename', `add-to-load-path'
123 There is a new form, `(current-filename)', which expands out to the
124 source file in which it occurs. Combined with the new
125 `add-to-load-path', this allows simple scripts to easily add nearby
126 directories to the load path. See "Load Paths" in the manual, for more.
128 ** `random-state-from-platform'
130 This procedure initializes a random seed using good random sources
131 available on your platform, such as /dev/urandom. See "Random Number
132 Generation" in the manual, for more.
134 ** Warn about unsupported `simple-format' options.
136 The `-Wformat' compilation option now reports unsupported format options
137 passed to `simple-format'.
141 Besides the sections already mentioned, the following manual sections
142 are new in this release: "Modules and the File System", "Module System
143 Reflection", "Syntax Transformer Helpers", and "Local Inclusion".
147 ** (ice-9 session): `apropos-hook'
148 ** New print option: `escape-newlines', defaults to #t.
149 ** (ice-9 ftw): `file-system-fold', `file-system-tree', `scandir'
150 ** `scm_c_value_ref': access to multiple returned values from C
151 ** scm_call (a varargs version), scm_call_7, scm_call_8, scm_call_9
152 ** Some new syntax helpers in (system syntax)
154 Search the manual for these identifiers and modules, for more.
158 ** FreeBSD build fixes.
159 ** OpenBSD compilation fixes.
160 ** Solaris 2.10 test suite fixes.
161 ** IA64 compilation fix.
162 ** MinGW build fixes.
163 ** Work around instruction reordering on SPARC and HPPA in the VM.
164 ** Gnulib updates: added `dirfd', `setenv' modules.
168 ** Add a deprecated alias for $expt.
169 ** Add an exception printer for `getaddrinfo-error'.
170 ** Add deprecated shim for `scm_display_error' with stack as first argument.
171 ** Add warnings for unsupported `simple-format' options.
172 ** Allow overlapping regions to be passed to `bytevector-copy!'.
173 ** Better function prologue disassembly
174 ** Compiler: fix miscompilation of (values foo ...) in some contexts.
175 ** Compiler: fix serialization of #nil-terminated lists.
176 ** Compiler: allow values bound in non-tail let expressions to be collected.
177 ** Deprecate SCM_ASRTGO.
178 ** Document invalidity of (begin) as expression; add back-compat shim.
179 ** Don't leak file descriptors when mmaping objcode.
180 ** Empty substrings no longer reference the original stringbuf.
181 ** FFI: Fix `set-pointer-finalizer!' to leave the type cell unchanged.
182 ** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the CIF made by `procedure->pointer'.
183 ** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the procedure passed to `procedure->pointer'.
184 ** FFI: Properly unpack small integer return values in closure call.
185 ** Fix R6RS `fold-left' so the accumulator is the first argument.
186 ** Fix bit-set*! bug from 2005.
187 ** Fix bug in `make-repl' when `lang' is actually a <language>.
188 ** Fix bugs related to mutation, the null string, and shared substrings.
189 ** Fix <dynwind> serialization.
190 ** Fix erroneous check in `set-procedure-properties!'.
191 ** Fix generalized-vector-{ref,set!} for slices.
192 ** Fix error messages involving definition forms.
193 ** Fix primitive-eval to return #<unspecified> for definitions.
194 ** HTTP: Extend handling of "Cache-Control" header.
195 ** HTTP: Fix qstring writing of cache-extension values
196 ** HTTP: Fix validators for various list-style headers.
197 ** HTTP: Permit non-date values for Expires header.
198 ** HTTP: `write-request-line' writes absolute paths, not absolute URIs.
199 ** Hack the port-column of current-output-port after printing a prompt.
200 ** Make sure `regexp-quote' tests use Unicode-capable string ports.
201 ** Peval: Fix bugs in the new optimizer.
202 ** Statistically unique marks and labels, for robust hygiene across sessions.
203 ** Web: Allow URIs with empty authorities, like "file:///etc/hosts".
204 ** `,language' at REPL sets the current-language fluid.
205 ** `primitive-load' returns the value(s) of the last expression.
206 ** `scm_from_stringn' always returns unique strings.
207 ** `scm_i_substring_copy' tries to narrow the substring.
208 ** i18n: Fix gc_malloc/free mismatch on non-GNU systems.
211 Changes in 2.0.3 (since 2.0.2):
215 ** Guile has a new optimizer, `peval'.
217 `Peval' is a partial evaluator that performs constant folding, dead code
218 elimination, copy propagation, and inlining. By default it runs on
219 every piece of code that Guile compiles, to fold computations that can
220 happen at compile-time, so they don't have to happen at runtime.
222 If we did our job right, the only impact you would see would be your
223 programs getting faster. But if you notice slowdowns or bloated code,
224 please send a mail to bug-guile@gnu.org with details.
226 Thanks to William R. Cook, Oscar Waddell, and Kent Dybvig for inspiring
227 peval and its implementation.
229 You can see what peval does on a given piece of code by running the new
230 `,optimize' REPL meta-command, and comparing it to the output of
231 `,expand'. See "Compile Commands" in the manual, for more.
233 ** Fewer calls to `stat'.
235 Guile now stats only the .go file and the .scm file when loading a fresh
240 ** New module: `(web client)', a simple synchronous web client.
242 See "Web Client" in the manual, for more.
244 ** Users can now install compiled `.go' files.
246 See "Installing Site Packages" in the manual.
248 ** Remove Front-Cover and Back-Cover text from the manual.
250 The manual is still under the GNU Free Documentation License, but no
251 longer has any invariant sections.
253 ** More helpful `guild help'.
255 `guild' is Guile's multi-tool, for use in shell scripting. Now it has a
256 nicer interface for querying the set of existing commands, and getting
257 help on those commands. Try it out and see!
259 ** New macro: `define-syntax-rule'
261 `define-syntax-rule' is a shorthand to make a `syntax-rules' macro with
262 one clause. See "Syntax Rules" in the manual, for more.
264 ** The `,time' REPL meta-command now has more precision.
266 The output of this command now has microsecond precision, instead of
267 10-millisecond precision.
269 ** `(ice-9 match)' can now match records.
271 See "Pattern Matching" in the manual, for more on matching records.
273 ** New module: `(language tree-il debug)'.
275 This module provides a tree-il verifier. This is useful for people that
276 generate tree-il, usually as part of a language compiler.
278 ** New functions: `scm_is_exact', `scm_is_inexact'.
280 These provide a nice C interface for Scheme's `exact?' and `inexact?',
285 See the git log (or the ChangeLog) for more details on these bugs.
287 ** Fix order of importing modules and resolving duplicates handlers.
288 ** Fix a number of bugs involving extended (merged) generics.
289 ** Fix invocation of merge-generics duplicate handler.
290 ** Fix write beyond array end in arrays.c.
291 ** Fix read beyond end of hashtable size array in hashtab.c.
292 ** (web http): Locale-independent parsing and serialization of dates.
293 ** Ensure presence of Host header in HTTP/1.1 requests.
294 ** Fix take-right and drop-right for improper lists.
295 ** Fix leak in get_current_locale().
296 ** Fix recursive define-inlinable expansions.
297 ** Check that srfi-1 procedure arguments are procedures.
298 ** Fix r6rs `map' for multiple returns.
299 ** Fix scm_tmpfile leak on POSIX platforms.
300 ** Fix a couple of leaks (objcode->bytecode, make-boot-program).
301 ** Fix guile-lib back-compatibility for module-stexi-documentation.
302 ** Fix --listen option to allow other ports.
303 ** Fix scm_to_latin1_stringn for substrings.
304 ** Fix compilation of untyped arrays of rank not 1.
305 ** Fix unparse-tree-il of <dynset>.
306 ** Fix reading of #||||#.
307 ** Fix segfault in GOOPS when class fields are redefined.
308 ** Prefer poll(2) over select(2) to allow file descriptors above FD_SETSIZE.
311 Changes in 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
315 ** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
317 The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
318 system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
319 hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
320 symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
322 ** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
324 See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
326 ** `while' as an expression
328 Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
329 values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
330 termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
331 do" in the manual for more.
333 ** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
335 `hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
336 be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
337 be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
338 otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
341 ** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
343 On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
344 procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
345 resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
348 ** Guile now measures time spent in GC
350 `gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
354 The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
355 `after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
356 us know if you find it useful.
358 ** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
360 We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
361 if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
362 primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
363 wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
364 core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
366 Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
368 ** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
370 This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
373 ** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
375 See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
377 ** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
379 The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
380 error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
381 still a work in progress.
383 ** All deprecated routines emit warnings
385 A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
390 ** Constants in compiled code now share state better
392 Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
393 as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
394 `.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
396 ** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
398 These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
400 ** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
402 This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
406 The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
407 once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
412 Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
413 bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
414 This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
415 improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
417 ** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
419 lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
421 ** `memq', `memv' optimizations
423 These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
427 ** Deprecate scm_whash API
429 `scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
430 `SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
431 `scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
434 ** Deprecate scm_struct_table
436 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
437 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
438 `scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
439 These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
442 ** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
444 The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
445 as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
446 stuff SCM values into pointers.
448 ** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
450 These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
455 Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
456 ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
460 ** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
461 ** -x error message fix
462 ** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
463 ** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
464 ** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
465 ** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
466 ** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
467 ** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
468 ** Fix compile error in MinGW fstat socket detection
469 ** Fix generation of auto-compiled file names on MinGW
470 ** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
471 ** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
472 ** Fix define-module ordering
473 ** Fix several POSIX functions to use the locale encoding
474 ** Add type and range checks to the complex generalized vector accessors
475 ** Fix unaligned accesses for bytevectors of complex numbers
477 ** Fix erroneous VM stack overflow for canceled threads
480 Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
484 ** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
486 The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
487 include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
488 in the runtime library lookup path.
490 ** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
492 This enables support for programs like the following:
497 (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
500 ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
503 ** REPL reader usability enhancements
505 The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
506 error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
509 ** REPL output has configurable width
511 The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
512 columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
515 ** Better C access to the module system
517 Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
518 modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
519 in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
521 ** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
523 See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
525 ** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
527 See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
528 `scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
531 ** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
533 Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
534 for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
535 and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
538 ** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
540 These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
541 to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
544 ** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
546 Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
548 ** Add `on-error' REPL option
550 This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
551 defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
552 Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
553 without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
555 ** Enforce immutability of string literals
557 Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
559 ** Fix pthread redirection
561 Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
562 support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
563 to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
564 unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
565 `scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
566 needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
569 ** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
571 A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
572 Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
573 prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
574 exits only after unwinding.
576 ** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
578 This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
579 particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
580 Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
582 ** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
584 R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
587 ** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
589 See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
591 ** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
593 See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
595 ** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
597 In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
598 symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
599 interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
600 because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
601 printer also works better too.
603 ** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
605 This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
606 usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
610 ** GOOPS documentation updates
614 Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
616 ** SRFI-23 documented
618 The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
622 ** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
623 ** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
624 ** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
628 ** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
629 ** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
630 ** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
631 ** `after-gc-hook' works again
632 ** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
633 ** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
634 ** Fixed C extension examples in manual
635 ** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
636 ** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
637 ** Default exception printer robustness fixes
638 ** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
639 ** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
640 ** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
641 ** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
642 ** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
643 ** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
644 ** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
645 ** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
646 ** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
647 ** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
648 ** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
649 ** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
650 ** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
651 ** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
652 ** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
653 ** Fix `quit' at the REPL
654 ** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
655 ** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
656 ** Fix stexi->html double translation
657 ** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
658 ** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
659 ** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
660 ** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
661 ** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
662 ** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
663 ** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
664 ** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
665 ** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
666 ** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
667 ** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
668 ** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
669 ** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
670 ** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
671 ** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
672 ** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
673 ** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
674 ** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
675 ** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
676 ** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
677 ** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
681 Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
683 * New modules (see the manual for details)
685 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
686 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
687 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
688 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
689 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
690 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
691 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
692 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
693 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
694 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
695 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
696 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
697 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
698 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
699 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
700 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
701 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
702 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
703 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
704 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
705 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
706 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
707 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
709 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
711 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
712 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
713 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
715 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
716 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
717 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
719 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
721 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
722 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
723 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
725 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
727 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
728 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
731 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
733 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
735 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
736 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
738 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
740 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
741 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
742 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
744 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
745 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
747 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
748 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
749 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
752 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
754 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
755 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
757 ** Remove old Emacs interface
759 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
760 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
761 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
764 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
766 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
767 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
768 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
771 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
773 ** Command line additions
775 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
776 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
779 ** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
782 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
783 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
784 parentheses. This option is on by default.
786 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
787 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
788 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
789 so this option is off by default.
791 Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
792 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
794 See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
796 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
798 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
799 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
800 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
802 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
803 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
805 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
807 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
808 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
809 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
811 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
812 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
813 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
814 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
816 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
817 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
820 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
822 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
825 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
827 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
828 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
829 include `/path/to/lib'.
831 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
833 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
836 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
838 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
839 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
840 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
841 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
844 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
846 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
847 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
848 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
850 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
852 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
853 just for the operator position.
855 ** Expression-oriented readline history
857 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
858 input lines. Let us know what you think!
860 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
862 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
863 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
865 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
867 ** Support for R6RS libraries
869 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
870 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
871 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
872 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
873 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
875 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
877 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
878 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
879 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
881 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
883 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
886 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
887 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
888 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
891 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
892 mentioned in that compatibility list.
894 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
896 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
897 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
898 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
899 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
901 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
902 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
903 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
904 code, and simplifying debugging.
906 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
907 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
909 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
910 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
911 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
912 both of these situations.
914 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
915 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
916 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
917 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
919 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
921 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
922 not apply to the compiler.
924 ** No more `local-eval'
926 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
927 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
928 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
929 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
932 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
933 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
936 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
938 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
939 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
940 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
942 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
943 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
944 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
947 Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
948 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
949 will be created if needed.
951 To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
952 variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
954 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
956 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
957 in the next prerelease.
959 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
961 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
963 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
965 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
967 ** Multicast socket options
969 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
970 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
973 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
975 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
976 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
978 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
980 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
982 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
984 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
986 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
988 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
989 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
990 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
992 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
993 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
994 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
995 procedures' docstrings for more information.
997 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
998 combining arity and formals. For example:
1000 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
1001 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
1003 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
1006 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
1008 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
1009 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
1010 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
1011 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
1013 ** New language: ECMAScript
1015 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
1016 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
1017 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
1018 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
1020 ** New language: Brainfuck
1022 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
1023 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
1024 languages. See the manual for details, or
1025 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
1026 Brainfuck language itself.
1028 ** New language: Elisp
1030 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
1031 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
1032 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
1034 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
1036 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
1037 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
1038 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
1039 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
1042 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
1044 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
1045 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
1046 properties. For example:
1052 (procedure-properties foo)
1053 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
1055 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
1058 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
1060 (procedure-properties bar)
1061 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
1063 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
1066 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
1069 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
1071 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
1072 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
1073 like this works now:
1075 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
1076 (define (helper x) ...)
1078 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
1080 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
1083 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
1084 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
1086 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
1088 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
1089 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
1090 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
1092 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
1094 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
1095 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
1096 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
1097 for more information.
1099 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
1101 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
1102 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
1104 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
1106 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
1109 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
1111 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
1112 in the manual, for more information.
1114 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
1117 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
1118 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
1120 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
1122 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
1124 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
1126 It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
1127 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
1130 ** Support for `letrec*'
1132 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
1133 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
1134 manual, for more details.
1136 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
1138 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
1139 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
1144 (define baz (+ bar 20))
1147 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
1148 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
1149 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
1152 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
1153 in earlier Guile dialects.
1155 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
1157 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
1158 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
1159 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
1160 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
1162 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
1163 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
1164 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
1165 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
1168 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
1170 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
1171 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
1174 (define (helper x) ...)
1175 (define-macro (foo bar)
1178 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
1181 (define (helper x) ...)
1182 (define-macro (foo bar)
1183 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
1185 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
1189 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
1191 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
1193 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
1200 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
1201 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
1204 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
1206 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
1207 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
1210 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
1212 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
1213 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
1214 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
1216 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
1218 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
1222 (define-macro (ref x) x)
1225 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
1226 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
1227 macros before code that uses them.
1229 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
1232 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
1234 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
1235 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
1236 (double-literal 2) => 4
1238 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
1239 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
1240 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
1242 (eval-when (load compile eval)
1243 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
1244 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
1245 (double-literal 2) => 4
1247 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
1249 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
1251 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
1252 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
1253 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
1254 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
1257 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
1259 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
1260 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
1262 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
1264 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
1265 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
1266 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
1268 ** Incompatible change to #'
1270 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
1271 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
1272 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
1273 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
1275 ** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
1277 As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
1278 expressions to unquote.
1280 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
1282 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
1285 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
1287 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
1288 in the manual, for more information.
1290 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
1291 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
1293 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
1294 works (with compiled procedures)
1296 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
1297 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
1298 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
1299 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
1301 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
1302 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
1303 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
1304 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
1305 number of stack frames.
1307 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
1308 active in the current continuation
1310 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
1311 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
1312 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
1313 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
1315 ** `positions' reader option enabled by default
1317 This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
1318 propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
1319 to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
1320 turning it on anyway.
1322 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
1324 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
1326 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
1327 through to the expanded code
1329 This should result in better backtraces.
1331 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
1333 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
1335 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
1337 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
1338 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
1341 ** New procedure, `define!'
1343 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
1344 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
1345 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
1346 less verbose than `module-define!'.
1348 ** All modules have names now
1350 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
1351 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
1352 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
1353 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
1355 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
1357 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
1358 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
1359 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
1360 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
1362 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
1363 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
1364 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
1365 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
1366 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
1367 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
1369 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
1370 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
1371 days of Guile's modules.
1373 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
1374 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
1375 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
1376 record accessors appropriately.
1378 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
1379 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
1380 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
1382 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
1383 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
1384 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
1386 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
1387 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
1390 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
1391 namespaces instead of values.
1393 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
1395 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
1396 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
1397 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
1398 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
1400 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
1402 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
1404 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
1406 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
1407 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
1409 ** Modules load within a known environment
1411 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
1412 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
1413 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
1416 ** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
1418 The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
1419 name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
1420 `load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
1421 that embeds the current source file name.
1423 This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
1424 the location of the file that calls `load'.
1426 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
1428 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
1429 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
1430 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
1432 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
1433 values to the expected number
1435 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
1436 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
1437 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
1439 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
1440 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
1441 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
1442 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
1444 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
1445 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
1446 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
1448 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
1451 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
1453 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
1455 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
1456 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
1457 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
1458 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
1459 the interpreter would proceed.
1461 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
1462 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
1463 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
1464 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
1466 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
1468 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
1469 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
1470 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
1471 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
1472 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
1473 you to contact the Guile developers.
1475 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1477 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1478 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1479 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1481 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1483 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1484 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1487 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1488 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1489 code in question was memoized.
1491 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1492 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1493 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1494 `x432' instead of `x'.
1496 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1497 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1498 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1499 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1501 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1503 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1504 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1505 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1508 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1509 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1510 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1511 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1513 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1515 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1516 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1517 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1518 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1521 (syntax-rules (else)
1522 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1525 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1526 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1527 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1529 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1530 by nonhygienic macros.
1532 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1533 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1536 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1537 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1538 (define-macro (ref x)
1540 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1545 (define-syntax bind-x
1547 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1548 (define-macro (ref x)
1550 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1552 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1553 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1554 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1555 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1556 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1557 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1559 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1561 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1562 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1564 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1565 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1568 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1570 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1571 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1572 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1573 transformer procedures.
1575 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1577 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1578 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1579 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1581 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1583 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1584 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1585 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1586 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1588 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1590 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1591 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1592 arity that the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1595 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1597 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1598 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1599 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1600 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1602 ** New syntax: define-once
1604 `define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
1605 but only if one does not exist already.
1607 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1609 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1610 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1611 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1614 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1615 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1616 documentation for more details.
1618 ** Better pretty-printing
1620 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1621 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1623 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1625 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1626 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1628 Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
1629 some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
1631 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1633 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1634 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1635 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1636 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1637 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1638 addressed by element and not by byte.
1640 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1641 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1642 endianness, as one would expect.
1644 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1645 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1646 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1647 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1650 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1651 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1653 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1654 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1656 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1658 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1660 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1661 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1662 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1664 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1665 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1667 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1669 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1671 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1672 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1674 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1676 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1677 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1680 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1682 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1683 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1685 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
1687 *** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
1689 Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
1690 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
1691 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
1692 floating point numbers.
1694 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
1695 must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
1696 Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
1697 differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
1699 `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
1700 returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
1701 returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
1702 separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
1703 floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
1705 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
1706 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
1707 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
1708 operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
1709 `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
1711 `floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
1712 where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
1713 both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
1714 Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
1715 the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
1716 `ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
1717 rounded toward positive infinity.
1719 For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
1720 rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
1721 `truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
1722 R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
1724 For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
1725 the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
1727 *** Complex number changes
1729 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
1730 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
1731 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
1733 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
1734 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
1735 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
1737 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
1738 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
1739 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
1740 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
1742 **** `make-rectangular' changes
1744 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
1745 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
1746 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1748 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
1749 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
1750 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
1752 **** `make-polar' changes
1754 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
1755 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
1756 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
1757 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1759 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
1760 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
1761 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
1763 **** `imag-part' changes
1765 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
1766 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
1769 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
1771 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
1772 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
1773 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
1774 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1777 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
1779 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
1780 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1781 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
1782 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
1784 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
1786 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
1787 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
1788 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
1789 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
1790 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
1791 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
1794 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
1796 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
1797 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
1798 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
1799 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
1802 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
1804 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
1805 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
1806 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
1807 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
1808 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
1809 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
1810 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
1811 even support multiplication.
1813 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
1815 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
1816 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
1817 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
1818 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1820 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
1822 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
1823 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
1824 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1826 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
1828 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
1829 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
1830 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
1833 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
1835 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
1836 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
1837 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
1838 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
1839 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
1841 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
1843 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
1844 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
1845 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
1846 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
1848 *** New procedure: `finite?'
1850 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
1851 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
1852 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
1853 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
1855 *** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
1857 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
1858 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
1859 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
1860 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
1861 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
1862 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
1864 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
1865 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
1867 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
1869 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
1871 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
1873 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
1877 ** Unicode characters
1879 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1880 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1881 probably be introduced at some point.
1885 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1886 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1887 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1889 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1890 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1891 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1892 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1896 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1898 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1900 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1901 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1902 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1903 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1904 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1907 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1908 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1909 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1911 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
1913 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
1914 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
1917 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
1919 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
1920 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
1922 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1924 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1925 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1926 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1929 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1930 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1931 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1933 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1935 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1937 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1938 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1939 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1940 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1942 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1944 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1945 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1946 Unicode code points.
1948 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1950 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1951 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1952 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1955 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1957 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1958 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1959 and was unmaintained.
1961 ** Compile-time warnings
1963 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1964 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1965 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1966 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1969 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1970 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1971 `#:warnings' as above.
1973 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1974 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1975 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1977 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1979 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1982 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1984 This slightly improves program startup times.
1986 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1988 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1990 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1992 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1993 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1994 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1995 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1997 ** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
1999 These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
2000 registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
2001 their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
2002 programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
2003 printed appropriately.
2005 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
2007 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
2008 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
2009 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
2010 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
2012 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
2013 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
2014 implement method combinations.
2016 ** Applicable struct support
2018 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
2019 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
2020 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
2021 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
2022 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
2023 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
2024 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
2025 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
2029 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
2030 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
2031 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
2032 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
2033 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
2035 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
2037 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
2038 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
2039 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
2040 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
2042 ** eqv? not a generic
2044 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
2045 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
2046 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
2047 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
2049 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
2051 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
2052 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
2053 functions are deprecated.
2055 ** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
2057 This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
2058 `getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
2061 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
2063 See "File System" in the manual.
2065 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
2067 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
2068 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
2069 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
2071 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
2073 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
2074 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
2075 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
2077 ** Fast bit operations.
2079 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
2080 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
2081 it's for number crunching too.
2083 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
2085 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
2086 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
2087 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
2088 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
2090 ** R6RS block comment support
2092 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
2093 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
2095 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
2097 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
2098 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
2100 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
2101 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
2102 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
2104 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
2105 ;; separate compilation phase.
2106 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
2108 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
2110 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
2112 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
2114 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
2115 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
2116 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
2117 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
2118 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
2121 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
2122 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
2123 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
2124 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
2125 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
2127 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
2129 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
2131 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
2133 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
2135 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
2137 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
2139 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
2140 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
2141 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
2143 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
2145 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
2146 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
2148 ** New readline history functions
2150 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
2151 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
2152 History library functions.
2154 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
2155 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
2157 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
2160 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
2162 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
2163 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
2164 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
2165 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
2166 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
2167 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
2168 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
2170 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
2171 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
2173 The following bindings have been totally removed:
2174 `before-signal-stack'.
2176 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
2177 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
2178 a deprecation warning.
2180 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
2182 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
2183 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
2184 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
2185 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
2188 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
2190 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
2191 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
2192 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
2193 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
2195 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
2196 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
2198 ** `top-repl' has its own module
2200 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
2201 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
2202 left in the default environment.
2204 ** `display-error' takes a frame
2206 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
2207 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
2208 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
2209 information for the error.
2211 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
2213 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
2214 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
2215 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
2217 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
2219 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
2220 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
2222 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
2224 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
2227 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
2229 ** Remove obsolete print-options
2231 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
2234 ** Remove obsolete read-options
2236 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
2237 obsolete, so they have been removed.
2239 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
2241 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
2244 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
2246 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
2247 on their replacements.
2249 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
2251 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
2252 should use Guile with Emacs.
2254 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
2256 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
2257 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
2258 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
2259 `with-throw-handler'.
2261 ** Deprecated: primitive properties
2263 The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
2264 `primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
2265 crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
2266 threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
2269 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
2271 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
2272 and is no longer used.
2274 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
2276 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
2277 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
2279 Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
2280 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
2281 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
2284 ** Add support for unbound fluids
2286 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
2289 ** Add `variable-unset!'
2291 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
2293 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
2295 * Changes to the C interface
2297 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
2299 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
2300 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
2301 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
2303 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
2304 code easier and less error-prone.
2306 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
2307 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
2308 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
2310 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
2311 particular encodings.
2313 Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
2314 output, or interacting with the C library.
2316 Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
2318 Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
2319 UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
2321 Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
2324 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
2326 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
2327 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
2328 available to C. Have fun!
2330 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
2332 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
2334 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
2337 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
2338 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
2340 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
2342 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
2343 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
2344 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
2347 ** Remove old evaluator closures
2349 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
2350 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
2351 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
2352 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
2355 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
2357 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
2358 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
2359 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
2360 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
2361 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
2362 both with the old 1.8 and with the current 1.9 branch.
2364 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
2365 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
2366 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
2367 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
2368 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
2369 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
2371 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
2372 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
2373 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
2374 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
2375 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
2377 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
2378 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
2379 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
2380 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
2381 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
2382 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
2384 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
2385 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
2386 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
2387 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
2390 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
2391 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
2394 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
2396 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
2397 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
2398 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
2399 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
2400 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
2402 ** Remove unused snarf macros
2404 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
2405 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
2407 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
2409 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
2410 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
2412 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
2414 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
2415 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
2417 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
2419 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
2420 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
2421 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
2422 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
2423 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
2426 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
2428 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
2429 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
2430 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
2431 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
2434 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
2435 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
2436 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
2437 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
2439 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
2441 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
2442 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
2443 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
2446 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
2447 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
2448 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
2449 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
2451 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
2453 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
2455 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
2457 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
2460 ** Inline vector allocation
2462 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
2463 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
2464 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
2465 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
2468 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
2470 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
2471 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
2475 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
2476 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
2477 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
2478 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
2479 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
2481 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
2483 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
2484 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
2485 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
2486 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
2487 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
2488 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
2492 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
2493 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
2494 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
2495 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
2497 ** Deprecate trampolines
2499 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
2500 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
2501 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
2502 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
2503 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
2505 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
2507 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
2509 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
2511 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
2512 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
2513 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
2514 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
2516 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
2518 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
2519 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
2520 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
2521 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
2522 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
2523 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
2524 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
2526 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
2528 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
2529 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
2532 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
2533 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
2535 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
2537 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
2538 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
2540 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
2542 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
2543 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
2544 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
2545 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
2547 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
2549 * Changes to the distribution
2551 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
2553 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
2554 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
2559 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
2560 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
2562 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
2564 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
2565 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
2567 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
2569 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
2570 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
2571 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
2574 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
2576 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
2577 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
2579 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
2581 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
2582 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
2584 ** Parallel installability fixes
2586 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
2587 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
2588 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
2590 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
2591 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
2592 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
2595 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
2597 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
2598 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
2599 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
2600 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
2601 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
2603 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
2605 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
2606 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
2607 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
2608 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
2609 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
2610 searched before the global site directory.
2612 ** New dependency: libgc
2614 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
2616 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
2618 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
2619 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
2621 ** New dependency: libffi
2623 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
2627 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
2631 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
2632 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
2633 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
2636 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
2638 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2640 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
2644 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
2645 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
2646 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
2647 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
2648 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
2649 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
2650 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
2651 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
2652 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
2653 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
2654 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
2656 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
2658 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
2659 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
2660 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
2663 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
2666 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
2668 * New features (see the manual for details)
2670 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
2672 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
2674 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
2675 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
2676 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
2678 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
2680 * Changes to the distribution
2682 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
2684 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
2685 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
2687 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
2689 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
2690 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
2695 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
2696 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
2697 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
2698 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
2699 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
2700 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
2701 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
2702 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
2703 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
2704 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
2705 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
2706 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
2707 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
2708 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
2710 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
2711 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
2712 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
2713 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
2714 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2717 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2719 * Infrastructure changes
2721 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2723 The new repository can be accessed using
2724 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2725 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2727 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2729 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2731 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2735 * New features (see the manual for details)
2737 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2738 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2739 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2741 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2742 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2743 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2744 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2746 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2748 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2749 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2750 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2754 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2755 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2757 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2758 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2760 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2761 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2763 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2764 lead to a stack overflow.
2766 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2767 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2768 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2769 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2770 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2771 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2772 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2773 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2774 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2775 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2776 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2777 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2778 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2779 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2780 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2781 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2784 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2788 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2789 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2790 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2791 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2792 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2793 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2794 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2795 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2796 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2797 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2798 system and library calls.
2799 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2800 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2801 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2802 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2803 uniform vectors on AIX.
2804 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2805 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2806 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2807 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2808 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2810 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2814 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2816 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2818 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2819 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2821 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2823 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2825 * Changes to the distribution
2827 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2829 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2830 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2831 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2833 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2835 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2838 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2840 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2847 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2848 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2849 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2850 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2851 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2852 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2853 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2855 * Implementation improvements
2857 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2858 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2861 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2863 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2865 ** set-program-arguments
2868 * Incompatible changes
2870 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2872 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2873 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2874 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2875 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2880 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2881 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2882 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2883 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2884 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2885 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2887 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2888 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2889 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2890 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2891 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2892 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2893 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2894 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2895 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2896 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2897 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2898 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2899 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2900 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2901 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2902 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2905 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2907 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2909 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2911 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2912 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2913 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2914 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2915 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2916 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2924 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2926 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2928 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2930 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2932 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2934 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2936 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2937 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2938 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2940 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2942 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2944 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2945 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2947 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2949 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2950 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2952 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2954 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2956 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2958 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2960 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2962 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2964 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2966 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2968 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2970 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2971 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2972 file was on a different device.
2975 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2977 * Changes to the distribution
2979 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2981 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2983 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2985 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2987 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2989 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2992 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2994 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2995 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2996 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2997 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2998 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2999 items like the versioned share directory name
3000 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
3002 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
3003 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
3004 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
3005 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
3006 with each micro release during a stable series.
3008 ** Thread implementation has changed.
3010 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
3011 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
3012 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
3013 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
3014 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
3017 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
3018 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
3019 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
3020 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
3023 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
3024 in which case "null" threads are used.
3026 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
3027 "Blocking", and others.
3029 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
3031 This is a milder form of deprecation.
3033 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
3034 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
3035 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
3036 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
3037 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
3039 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
3040 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
3042 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
3044 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
3045 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
3047 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
3050 This SRFI is always available.
3052 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
3054 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
3055 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
3056 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
3057 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
3060 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
3062 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
3063 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
3064 parameters without currying.
3066 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
3068 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
3069 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
3071 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
3072 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
3075 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
3076 with a renaming import, for example.
3078 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
3080 The official version is good enough now.
3082 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
3084 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
3085 provided. Use 'make html'.
3087 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
3089 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
3090 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
3091 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
3092 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
3094 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
3096 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
3099 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3101 ** New command line option `-L'.
3103 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
3105 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
3107 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
3108 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
3110 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
3112 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
3113 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
3115 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
3117 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
3118 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
3121 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
3124 (define-module (demo)
3128 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
3131 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3133 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
3135 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
3136 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
3137 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
3139 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
3141 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
3142 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
3144 ** New function hashx-remove!
3146 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
3148 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
3149 barriers and dynamic states.
3151 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
3152 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
3153 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
3156 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
3157 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
3158 Barriers" in the manual.
3160 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
3161 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
3163 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
3165 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
3166 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
3167 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
3168 variable %load-path.
3170 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
3172 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
3173 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
3175 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
3176 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
3177 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
3179 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
3180 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
3182 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
3183 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
3184 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
3186 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
3187 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
3188 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
3191 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
3192 substrings and read-only strings.
3194 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
3195 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
3198 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
3200 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
3209 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
3210 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
3211 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
3213 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
3214 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
3215 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
3216 on an ANSI terminal:
3218 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
3219 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
3222 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
3224 See the manual for details.
3226 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
3228 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
3231 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
3233 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
3234 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
3235 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
3236 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
3238 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
3239 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
3240 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
3243 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
3245 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
3246 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
3257 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
3261 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
3266 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
3270 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
3274 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
3277 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
3278 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
3279 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
3280 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
3282 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
3283 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
3286 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
3289 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
3293 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
3295 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
3296 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
3297 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
3300 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
3303 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
3305 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
3308 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
3309 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
3312 (define-module (foo)
3317 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
3318 has been detected is to
3320 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
3321 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
3322 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
3325 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
3328 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
3330 to your .guile init file.
3332 ** New define-module option: :replace
3334 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
3337 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
3338 for the core binding `format'.
3340 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
3342 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
3343 a prefix to all imported bindings.
3345 (define-module (foo)
3346 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
3348 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
3351 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
3353 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
3354 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
3355 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
3357 ** New function: effective-version
3359 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3360 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3361 to the distribution" above.
3363 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
3365 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
3366 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
3368 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
3370 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
3371 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
3373 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
3375 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
3376 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
3379 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
3381 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
3383 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
3385 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
3386 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
3387 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
3390 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
3391 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
3392 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
3393 'system-async-mark'.
3395 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
3396 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
3398 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
3399 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
3400 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
3403 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
3405 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
3406 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
3409 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
3410 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3412 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
3413 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
3414 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
3415 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
3416 level for the current thread.
3418 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
3420 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
3422 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3423 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
3426 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
3428 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
3430 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
3433 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
3435 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
3438 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
3439 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
3440 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
3442 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
3443 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
3444 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
3445 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
3456 ERROR: Numerical overflow
3458 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
3461 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
3463 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
3464 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
3465 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
3476 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
3478 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
3479 them is also done exactly, of course:
3484 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
3485 for exact arguments.
3487 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
3488 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
3490 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
3492 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
3493 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
3494 equal to a floating point number. For example:
3496 (inexact->exact 1.234)
3497 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
3499 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
3501 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
3504 ** New function 'rationalize'.
3506 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
3507 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
3509 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
3512 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
3513 result when both its arguments are exact.
3515 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
3517 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
3518 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
3519 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
3521 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
3523 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
3524 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
3525 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
3527 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
3530 ** pretty-print has more options.
3532 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
3533 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
3534 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
3536 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
3538 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
3539 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
3540 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
3542 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
3544 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
3545 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
3547 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
3549 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
3550 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
3553 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
3555 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
3556 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
3557 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
3558 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
3559 without the soft port blocking.
3561 ** Deprecated: undefine
3563 There is no replacement for undefine.
3565 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
3566 have been discouraged.
3568 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
3569 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
3570 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
3573 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
3575 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
3577 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
3578 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
3579 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
3580 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
3583 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
3584 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
3585 be removed in the next major Guile release.
3587 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
3589 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
3590 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
3591 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
3592 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
3593 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
3594 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
3596 * Changes to the C interface
3598 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
3599 take a 'delete' function argument.
3601 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
3602 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
3604 This is an incompatible change.
3606 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
3608 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
3609 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
3610 --disable-deprecated.
3612 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
3614 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
3615 Scheme values has been added.
3617 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
3618 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
3621 - int scm_is_* (...)
3623 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
3624 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
3626 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
3628 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
3629 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
3632 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
3634 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
3635 scm_from_int for ints.
3637 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
3638 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
3639 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
3641 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
3643 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
3644 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
3645 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
3648 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
3650 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
3652 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
3654 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
3655 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
3656 following alternatives.
3658 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
3659 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
3660 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
3661 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
3663 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
3664 do the validating for you.
3666 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
3667 have been discouraged.
3669 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
3670 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
3673 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
3675 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
3676 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
3679 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
3681 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
3684 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
3687 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
3689 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
3690 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
3692 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
3693 scm_truncate_number should have.
3695 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
3696 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
3698 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
3701 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
3702 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
3703 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
3705 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
3706 easier to use from C.
3708 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
3709 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
3711 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
3712 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
3713 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
3716 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3717 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3718 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3719 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3722 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3723 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3724 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3725 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3726 and is thus quite efficient.
3728 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3730 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3731 about the character encoding.
3733 Replace according to the following table:
3735 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3736 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3737 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3738 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3739 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3740 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3741 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3742 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3743 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3745 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3746 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3748 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3750 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3751 now also available to C code.
3753 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3755 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3756 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3757 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3759 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3762 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3764 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3765 unceremoniously removed.
3767 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3768 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3769 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3771 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3772 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3773 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3774 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3775 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3776 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3779 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3781 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3782 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3783 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3784 manual for more details.
3786 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3787 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3789 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3790 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3791 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3793 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3795 Migrate according to the following table:
3797 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3798 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3799 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3800 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3801 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3802 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3803 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3805 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3806 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3807 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3808 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3809 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3810 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3811 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3813 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3815 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3816 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3818 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3819 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3820 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3821 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3823 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3825 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3826 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3827 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3829 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3830 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3832 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3833 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3834 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3835 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3837 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3839 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3840 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3841 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3842 prevent a potential memory leak:
3849 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3851 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3852 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3854 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3855 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3862 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3863 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3867 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3869 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3871 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3872 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3873 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3875 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3876 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3878 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3880 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3882 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3883 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3884 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3886 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3887 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3889 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3890 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3891 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3892 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3895 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3897 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3898 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3899 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3901 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3903 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3904 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3906 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3908 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3909 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3911 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3913 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3914 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3915 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3917 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3919 You should not have used them.
3921 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3923 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3924 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3926 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3928 This macro is not intended for public use.
3930 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3932 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3934 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3936 Use scm_is_real instead.
3938 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3940 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3942 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3944 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3945 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3947 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3948 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3950 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3951 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3953 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3955 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3958 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3960 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3961 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3962 to the distribution" above.
3964 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3966 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3967 arguments are now passed directly:
3969 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3971 This is an incompatible change.
3973 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3975 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3976 function in the init section.
3978 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3980 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3982 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3983 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3984 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3985 stays roughly constant.
3987 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3988 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3989 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3990 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3991 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3994 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3995 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3996 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3997 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3999 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
4000 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
4001 objects for every type.
4004 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
4006 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
4008 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
4010 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
4011 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
4012 initializes a new cell (see below).
4014 ** New functions for memory management
4016 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
4017 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
4018 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
4019 cause aborts in long running programs.
4021 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
4022 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
4024 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
4025 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
4026 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
4027 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
4028 details and for upgrading instructions.
4030 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
4031 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
4032 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
4034 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
4036 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
4037 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
4038 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
4039 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
4040 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
4042 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
4043 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
4044 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
4046 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
4047 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
4049 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
4051 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
4052 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
4053 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
4054 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
4055 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
4057 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
4059 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
4062 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
4064 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
4066 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
4068 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
4069 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
4071 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
4073 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
4074 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
4076 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
4077 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
4079 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
4081 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
4083 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
4084 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
4085 blocking it is not well defined.
4087 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
4089 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
4090 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
4091 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
4092 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
4093 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
4094 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
4095 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
4096 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
4097 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
4098 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
4099 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4100 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
4101 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
4102 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
4103 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
4104 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
4105 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
4106 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4107 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
4108 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
4109 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
4110 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
4111 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
4112 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
4113 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
4114 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
4115 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
4116 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
4117 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
4118 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
4119 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
4121 * Changes to bundled modules
4125 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
4126 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
4127 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
4128 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
4129 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
4132 Changes since Guile 1.4:
4134 * Changes to the distribution
4136 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
4138 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
4140 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
4141 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
4142 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
4143 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
4144 indicate major changes in Guile.
4146 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
4147 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
4148 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
4149 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
4151 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
4152 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
4153 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
4154 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
4155 micro version number.
4157 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
4159 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
4161 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
4162 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
4164 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
4166 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
4167 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
4168 See INSTALL and README for more information.
4170 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
4172 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
4173 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
4174 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
4177 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
4179 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
4182 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
4184 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
4185 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
4187 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
4189 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
4190 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
4193 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
4195 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
4198 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
4201 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
4203 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
4205 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
4206 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
4207 open-output-string, get-output-string.
4209 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
4211 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
4213 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
4216 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
4218 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
4220 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
4222 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
4223 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
4224 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
4226 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
4228 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
4230 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
4231 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
4240 See README there for more info.
4242 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
4243 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
4246 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
4248 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
4250 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
4252 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
4253 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
4254 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
4256 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
4258 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
4259 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
4260 to be named `and-let*', of course.
4262 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
4263 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
4265 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
4268 (oop goops describe)
4270 (oop goops active-slot)
4271 (oop goops composite-slot)
4273 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
4274 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
4275 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
4277 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
4279 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
4280 in the default environment:
4282 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
4283 %read-line write-line
4285 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
4286 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
4288 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
4290 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
4293 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
4294 can be used for similar functionality.
4296 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
4298 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
4299 it defines two procedures:
4301 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4303 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
4304 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4305 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
4308 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4310 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
4311 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4312 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
4313 write large strings.
4315 ** New module (ice-9 match)
4317 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
4318 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
4320 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
4322 for complete documentation.
4324 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
4326 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
4327 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
4328 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
4329 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
4331 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
4332 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
4336 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
4337 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
4338 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
4341 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
4344 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
4345 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
4347 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
4348 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
4351 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
4354 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
4356 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
4358 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4360 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
4362 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
4363 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
4364 Scheme programs easier.
4366 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
4367 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
4368 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
4369 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
4370 `cond-expand' when using this option.
4373 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
4374 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
4376 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
4379 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
4381 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
4382 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
4383 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
4386 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4388 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
4390 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
4391 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
4392 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
4393 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
4394 was also ASCII, for example.
4396 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
4398 tag - no replacement.
4399 fseek - replaced by seek.
4400 list* - replaced by cons*.
4402 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
4406 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
4407 (define m (make-safe-module))
4408 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
4409 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
4410 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
4412 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
4414 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
4415 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
4416 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
4418 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
4420 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
4421 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
4422 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
4423 from the issues related to the module system.
4425 *** New function: load-extension
4427 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
4429 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
4431 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
4432 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
4433 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
4435 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
4437 This function registers a initialization function for use by
4438 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
4439 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
4440 support dynamic linking).
4442 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
4444 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
4445 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
4446 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
4447 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
4450 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
4451 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
4452 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
4453 library and initialize it explicitly.
4455 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
4456 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
4458 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
4460 (define-module (foo bar))
4462 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
4464 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
4466 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
4467 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
4469 (scheme-report-environment 5)
4470 (null-environment 5)
4471 (interaction-environment)
4477 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
4479 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
4480 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
4481 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
4482 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
4484 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
4485 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
4486 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
4487 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
4488 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
4489 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
4490 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
4491 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
4492 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
4493 one eval to the next.
4495 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
4496 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
4497 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
4498 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
4499 subforms are at the top-level as well.
4501 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
4502 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
4503 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
4504 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
4505 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
4506 used in a lexical environment.
4508 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
4509 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
4510 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
4511 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
4512 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
4513 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
4515 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
4517 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
4518 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
4519 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
4520 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
4521 new facilities: selection and renaming.
4523 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
4524 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
4525 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
4527 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
4528 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
4530 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
4531 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
4532 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4534 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4535 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
4537 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
4538 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
4539 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
4540 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
4543 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4544 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
4545 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
4546 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4548 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4549 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4550 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
4552 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4553 ;; and all four by upcasing.
4554 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
4555 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
4556 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
4558 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4560 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4561 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4562 :renamer upcase-symbol))
4564 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
4565 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
4566 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
4568 See manual for more info.
4570 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
4572 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
4573 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
4574 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
4576 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
4578 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
4579 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
4580 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
4582 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
4583 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
4584 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
4585 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
4587 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
4589 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
4590 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
4592 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
4593 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
4594 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
4595 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
4596 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
4599 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
4600 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
4601 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
4602 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
4603 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
4604 successful and #f if it wasn't.
4606 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
4607 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
4608 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
4609 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
4610 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
4612 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
4613 objects are usually permanent.
4615 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
4616 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
4618 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
4620 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
4621 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
4624 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
4628 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
4633 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
4635 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
4636 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
4637 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
4638 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
4640 ** New function `make-object-property'
4642 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
4643 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
4647 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
4648 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
4652 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
4653 source properties eventually.
4655 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
4657 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
4658 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
4659 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
4661 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
4662 will be removed in the next release.
4664 ** New define-module option: pure
4666 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
4671 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
4674 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
4676 Export names NAME1 ...
4678 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
4679 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
4683 (define-module (foo)
4685 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
4688 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
4693 ** New function: object->string OBJ
4695 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
4697 ** New function: port? X
4699 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
4700 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
4702 ** New function: file-port?
4704 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
4706 ** New function: port-for-each proc
4708 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
4709 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
4710 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
4711 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
4712 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
4714 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
4716 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4717 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4718 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4719 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4720 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4723 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4725 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4726 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4727 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4728 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4731 ** New function: crypt password salt
4733 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4736 ** New function: chroot path
4738 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4740 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4742 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4745 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4747 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4749 ** New function: getpass prompt
4751 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4754 ** New function: flock file operation
4756 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4758 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4760 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4763 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4765 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4766 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4767 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4768 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4769 of the temporary file.
4771 ** New function: open-input-string string
4773 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4774 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4775 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4777 ** New function: open-output-string
4779 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4780 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4782 ** New function: get-output-string
4784 Return the contents of an output string port.
4786 ** New function: identity
4788 Return the argument.
4790 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4791 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4793 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4795 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4796 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4797 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4800 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4801 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4803 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4805 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4806 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4807 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4810 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4811 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4812 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4816 Use `identity' instead.
4822 ** Deprecated: return-it
4826 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4828 Use `string-length' instead.
4830 ** Deprecated: flags
4832 Use `logior' instead.
4834 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4836 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4837 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4838 port-for-each is more flexible.
4840 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4841 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4842 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4844 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4846 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4848 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4850 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4852 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4854 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4855 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4857 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4858 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4860 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4861 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4863 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4865 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4866 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4868 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4869 Use module system operations for all variables.
4871 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4873 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4876 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4878 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4879 The following bugs have been fixed:
4881 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4882 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4885 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4886 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4887 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4889 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4890 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4892 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4893 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4896 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4897 The expansion used to be like so:
4899 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4901 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4903 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4905 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4906 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4908 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4910 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4911 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4912 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4916 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4917 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4919 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4924 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4925 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4927 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4928 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4929 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4931 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4934 * Changes to the C interface
4936 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4938 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4939 with "_t". What a concept.
4941 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4943 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4945 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4949 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4950 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4952 *** C Functions removed
4954 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4955 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4956 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4957 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4958 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4959 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4960 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4962 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4964 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4966 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4968 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4970 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4971 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4973 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4975 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4978 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4980 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4982 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4984 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4985 Evaluation" in the manual.
4987 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4989 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4990 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4992 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4994 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4995 Constructors" in the manual.
4997 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4999 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
5000 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
5002 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
5004 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
5006 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
5007 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
5008 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
5010 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
5012 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
5014 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
5015 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
5016 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
5019 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
5021 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
5023 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
5024 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
5026 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
5028 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
5029 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
5030 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
5031 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
5033 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
5034 scm_primitive_property_ref
5035 scm_primitive_property_set_x
5036 scm_primitive_property_del_x
5038 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
5039 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
5041 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
5043 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
5044 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
5045 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
5046 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
5048 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
5050 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
5051 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
5052 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
5053 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
5054 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
5055 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
5056 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
5058 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
5059 scm_remember_upto_here
5061 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
5063 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
5065 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
5066 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
5068 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
5070 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
5072 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
5074 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
5076 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
5078 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
5079 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
5080 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
5081 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
5082 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
5083 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
5085 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
5087 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
5089 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
5090 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
5091 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
5093 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
5095 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
5096 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
5097 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
5099 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
5101 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
5102 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
5105 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
5108 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
5109 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
5112 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
5114 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
5116 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
5118 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
5120 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
5122 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
5124 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
5125 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
5126 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
5127 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
5128 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
5129 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
5130 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
5131 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
5132 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
5133 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
5134 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
5135 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
5136 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
5137 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
5138 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
5140 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
5141 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
5142 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
5143 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
5144 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
5145 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
5146 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
5147 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
5148 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
5149 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
5150 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
5151 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
5152 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
5153 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
5154 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
5155 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
5156 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
5157 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
5158 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
5159 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
5160 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
5161 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
5162 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
5163 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
5164 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
5165 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
5166 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
5167 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
5168 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
5170 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
5172 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
5174 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
5175 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
5177 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
5179 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
5181 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
5183 Use scm_string_hash instead.
5185 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
5187 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
5189 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
5191 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
5193 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
5196 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
5197 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
5199 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
5201 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
5203 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
5205 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
5207 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
5209 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
5211 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
5213 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
5216 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
5218 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
5220 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
5222 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
5223 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
5225 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
5226 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
5228 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
5230 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
5231 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
5232 scm_module_define, scm_define.
5234 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
5236 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
5238 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
5239 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
5241 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
5242 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
5243 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
5244 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
5246 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
5247 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
5248 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
5250 Use the new ones from above instead.
5252 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
5254 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
5255 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
5256 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
5258 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
5259 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
5261 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
5262 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
5265 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
5266 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
5268 Use the new functions instead.
5270 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
5273 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
5275 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
5277 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
5280 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
5282 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
5285 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
5287 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
5290 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
5291 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
5292 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
5294 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
5296 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
5297 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
5299 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
5300 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
5301 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
5302 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
5305 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
5307 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
5308 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
5309 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
5310 inexact for an exact.
5312 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
5313 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
5314 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
5317 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
5318 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
5319 accept an inexact argument.
5321 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
5322 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
5324 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
5327 ** New number validation macros:
5328 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
5332 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
5334 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
5335 scm_unprotect_object.
5337 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
5339 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
5341 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
5344 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
5346 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
5350 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
5352 * Changes to the distribution
5354 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
5356 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
5357 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
5358 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
5359 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
5360 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
5361 obtain these programs.
5362 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
5363 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
5365 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
5366 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
5367 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
5368 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
5369 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
5371 However, this approach means that minor differences between
5372 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
5373 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
5374 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
5378 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
5381 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
5382 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
5383 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
5384 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
5386 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
5388 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
5390 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
5391 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
5393 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
5394 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
5396 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
5397 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
5399 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
5400 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
5401 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
5402 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
5404 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
5406 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
5410 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
5411 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
5413 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
5415 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
5416 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
5418 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
5419 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
5420 number of objects of that kind.
5422 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
5424 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
5425 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
5426 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
5427 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
5428 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
5430 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
5432 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
5434 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
5436 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
5439 ** New module (ice-9 time)
5441 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
5443 ** New module (ice-9 history)
5445 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
5447 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5449 ** New command line option --debug
5451 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
5453 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
5455 ** New help facility
5457 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
5458 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
5459 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
5460 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
5461 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
5462 (help) gives this text
5464 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
5465 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
5467 Examples: (help help)
5469 (help "output-string")
5471 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
5473 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
5475 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
5476 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
5479 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
5480 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
5481 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
5484 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
5485 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
5486 use absolute filenames when possible.
5488 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
5489 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
5490 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
5493 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
5495 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
5496 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
5497 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
5498 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
5500 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
5502 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
5504 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
5505 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
5506 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
5508 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
5509 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
5510 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
5512 (read-enable 'positions)
5513 (debug-enable 'debug)
5515 ** Backtraces in scripts
5517 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
5521 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
5523 at the top of the script.
5525 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
5526 The second enables backtraces.)
5528 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
5530 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
5531 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
5532 substantially faster than before.
5534 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
5535 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
5537 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
5538 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
5540 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
5542 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
5543 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
5544 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
5546 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
5547 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
5548 when this hook is run in the future.
5550 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
5551 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
5553 ** Improvements to garbage collector
5555 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
5556 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
5559 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
5560 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
5561 more and more memory for certain programs.)
5563 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
5564 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
5566 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
5567 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
5569 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
5570 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
5571 in order not to need further allocation.)
5573 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
5576 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
5577 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
5578 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
5579 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
5581 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
5583 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
5586 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
5588 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
5591 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
5592 GC in percent of total heap size
5595 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
5596 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
5598 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
5600 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
5601 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
5603 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
5605 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
5606 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
5608 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
5610 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
5611 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
5615 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
5616 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
5618 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
5620 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5622 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
5624 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
5626 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
5628 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
5629 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
5631 (simple-format port message . args)
5632 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
5633 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
5634 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
5635 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
5636 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
5637 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
5638 Does not add a trailing newline."
5640 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
5642 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
5643 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
5645 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
5646 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
5648 ** Deprecated: list*
5650 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
5652 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
5654 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
5655 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
5657 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
5658 is returned as result.
5660 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
5662 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
5664 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
5666 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
5667 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
5670 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
5672 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
5674 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
5675 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
5677 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5679 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
5681 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
5683 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5685 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
5687 Thanks to Greg Badros!
5689 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5691 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5692 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
5693 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
5695 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
5698 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
5700 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
5701 the readability of argument checking.
5703 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
5705 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
5707 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
5709 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
5710 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
5711 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
5712 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
5713 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
5714 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
5715 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5717 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5719 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5721 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5722 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5724 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5726 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5727 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5730 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5732 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5733 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5734 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5736 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5737 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5738 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5740 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5741 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5742 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5743 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5744 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5745 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5746 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5748 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5749 scm_end_input (object);
5750 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5751 ptob->flush (object);
5753 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5754 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5757 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5759 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5761 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5762 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5763 removed in a future version.
5765 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5767 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5768 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5769 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5770 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5772 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5773 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5775 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5778 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5780 in your configure.in.
5782 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5787 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5793 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5795 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5799 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5800 (define make-message string-append)
5802 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5804 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5808 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5813 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5817 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5819 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5820 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5822 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5824 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5825 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5826 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5827 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5828 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5829 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5831 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5832 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5833 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5835 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5836 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5837 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5840 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5841 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5842 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5843 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5844 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5846 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5847 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5848 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5849 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5850 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5851 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5852 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5854 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5856 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5857 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5858 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5860 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5861 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5862 KEY in the calling thread.
5864 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5865 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5866 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5867 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5868 associated with the key.
5870 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5872 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5873 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5875 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5877 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5878 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5879 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5881 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5883 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5884 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5886 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5888 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5890 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5891 returned is undefined.
5893 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5894 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5895 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5897 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5898 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5899 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5901 ** New C level GC hooks
5903 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5905 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5908 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5909 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5910 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5912 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5913 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5914 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5916 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5917 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5920 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5922 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5923 allocation parameters
5925 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5926 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5927 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5931 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5932 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5933 scm_default_max_segment_size
5935 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5937 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5938 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5940 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5942 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5943 object and count on the object being protected until
5944 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5946 The functions also have better time complexity.
5948 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5949 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5950 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5951 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5952 are no longer needed.
5954 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5956 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5957 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5958 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5959 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5961 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5963 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5965 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5967 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5968 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5969 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5970 until this issue has been settled.
5972 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5974 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5976 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5979 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5981 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5983 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5984 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5985 descriptors were checked.
5987 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5988 atomically written to a pipe.
5990 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5991 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5992 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5993 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5994 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5995 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5996 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5999 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
6000 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
6001 is changed without calling tzset.
6003 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
6005 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
6006 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
6007 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
6009 (define write-network-long
6010 (lambda (value port)
6011 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
6012 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
6013 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
6015 (define read-network-long
6017 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
6018 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
6019 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
6021 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
6022 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
6024 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
6025 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
6026 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
6027 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
6029 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
6030 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
6031 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
6032 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
6036 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
6038 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6042 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
6043 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
6044 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
6050 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
6051 for a description of available commands.
6053 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
6054 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
6055 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
6057 (debug-enable 'backwards)
6059 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
6060 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
6062 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
6064 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
6066 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
6067 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
6068 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
6069 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
6070 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
6071 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
6074 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
6076 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
6077 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
6078 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
6079 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
6081 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
6082 the file and should not be affected by this change.
6084 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
6086 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6088 ** Readline support has changed again.
6090 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
6091 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
6092 to activate readline is now
6094 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
6097 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
6099 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
6100 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
6101 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
6104 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
6105 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
6106 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
6109 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
6110 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
6111 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
6112 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
6113 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
6114 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
6116 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
6117 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
6119 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
6121 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
6122 object it receives is the same string passed to
6123 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
6124 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
6125 string, not the suffix.
6127 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
6128 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
6129 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
6131 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
6133 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
6134 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
6135 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
6136 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
6139 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
6141 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
6143 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
6144 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
6145 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
6146 appear from left to right.
6148 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
6151 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
6153 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
6154 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
6156 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
6160 *** New function: hook? OBJ
6162 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
6164 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
6166 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
6167 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
6168 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
6170 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
6172 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
6174 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
6176 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
6179 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
6181 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
6182 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
6183 mentioning it here anyway.
6185 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
6187 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
6188 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
6189 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
6190 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
6193 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
6195 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
6197 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
6199 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
6200 otherwise return #f.
6202 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
6204 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
6205 returned by `opendir'.
6207 ** New function: using-readline?
6209 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
6211 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
6213 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
6214 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
6216 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6218 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
6220 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
6221 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
6222 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
6224 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
6226 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
6227 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
6229 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
6231 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
6232 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
6233 documentation slots are not yet used.
6235 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
6237 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
6238 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
6239 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
6244 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
6245 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
6246 (string-append x y))
6248 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
6249 can also be used for concatenating strings.
6251 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
6252 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
6253 be made in a clean way.]
6255 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
6257 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
6259 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
6261 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
6262 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
6264 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6266 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
6268 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
6270 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
6272 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
6273 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
6274 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
6275 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
6278 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6280 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
6282 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
6284 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
6286 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
6287 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
6289 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6291 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
6293 Evaluates the body of a special form.
6295 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
6297 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
6298 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
6299 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
6300 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
6301 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
6302 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
6304 This should not make any difference for most users.
6306 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
6308 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
6309 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
6311 *** New functions for applying generic functions
6313 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
6314 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
6315 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
6316 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
6317 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
6319 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
6321 It is now replaced by:
6323 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
6325 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6326 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6328 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6330 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
6331 This might change when we get the new module system.
6333 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
6337 Changes since Guile 1.3:
6339 * Changes to mailing lists
6341 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
6343 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
6346 * Changes to the distribution
6348 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
6350 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
6351 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
6352 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
6353 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
6354 you explicitly specify it.
6356 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
6357 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
6358 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
6359 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
6360 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
6363 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
6364 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
6365 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
6366 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
6368 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
6369 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
6370 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
6373 You can activate the readline support by issuing
6375 (use-modules (readline-activator))
6378 from your ".guile" file, for example.
6380 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6382 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
6383 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
6384 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
6385 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
6387 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
6388 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
6391 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6393 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
6394 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
6395 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
6396 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
6397 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
6398 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
6399 the Guile interpreter or other unwanted results. An example of
6400 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
6412 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
6413 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
6414 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
6415 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
6416 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
6421 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
6422 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
6430 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
6435 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
6436 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
6439 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
6440 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
6441 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
6442 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
6444 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
6446 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
6448 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
6449 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
6451 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
6453 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
6455 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
6456 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
6458 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
6461 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
6463 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
6465 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
6467 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
6469 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
6471 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
6473 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
6474 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
6475 when the hook was created.
6477 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
6478 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
6479 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
6480 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
6481 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
6482 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
6483 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
6484 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
6485 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
6487 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
6488 the dlopen family of functions.
6490 ** New function `provided?'
6492 - Function: provided? FEATURE
6493 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
6494 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
6495 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
6497 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
6499 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
6500 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
6501 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
6502 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6505 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6506 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
6507 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
6508 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
6510 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
6511 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
6512 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
6515 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
6516 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
6517 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
6518 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
6519 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
6520 but with the flag set.
6522 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
6524 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
6525 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
6527 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
6528 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
6529 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
6530 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
6531 available Scheme format implementations.
6533 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
6534 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
6535 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
6536 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
6537 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
6538 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
6539 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
6540 output is to the current error port if available by the
6541 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
6544 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
6545 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
6546 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
6547 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
6548 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
6549 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
6550 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
6551 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
6553 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
6554 be executed at a time.
6557 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
6559 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
6560 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
6561 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
6563 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
6564 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
6565 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
6566 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
6567 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
6568 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
6569 general form of a directive is:
6571 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
6573 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
6575 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6577 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
6578 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
6579 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
6582 Any (print as `display' does).
6586 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
6590 S-expression (print as `write' does).
6594 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
6600 print number sign always.
6603 print comma separated.
6605 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
6611 print number sign always.
6614 print comma separated.
6616 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
6622 print number sign always.
6625 print comma separated.
6627 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
6633 print number sign always.
6636 print comma separated.
6638 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
6643 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
6647 print a number as a Roman numeral.
6650 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
6653 print a number as an ordinal English number.
6656 print a number as a cardinal English number.
6661 prints `y' and `ies'.
6664 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6667 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6672 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
6676 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
6679 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
6680 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
6682 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6685 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
6686 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
6688 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6691 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
6693 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
6695 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6698 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
6700 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
6702 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6705 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
6708 The sign appears before the padding.
6716 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6718 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6723 print N page separators.
6733 newline is ignored, white space left.
6736 newline is left, white space ignored.
6741 relative tabulation.
6747 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6749 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6752 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6754 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6757 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6760 converts by `string-upcase'.
6763 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6765 jumps N arguments forward.
6768 jumps 1 argument backward.
6771 jumps N arguments backward.
6774 jumps to the 0th argument.
6777 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6779 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6780 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6782 take argument from N.
6785 true test conditional.
6788 if-else-then conditional.
6794 default clause follows.
6797 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6799 at most N iterations.
6802 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6805 args from the rest of arguments.
6808 args from the rest args (lists).
6819 aborts if N <= M <= K
6821 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6824 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6827 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6833 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6835 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6837 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6838 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6839 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6840 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6841 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6842 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6846 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6850 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6856 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6859 Print a `#\space' character
6861 print N `#\space' characters.
6864 Print a `#\tab' character
6866 print N `#\tab' characters.
6869 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6870 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6871 must be a positive decimal number.
6874 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6875 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6876 be processed by `read'.
6879 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6880 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6881 be processed by `read'.
6884 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6887 prints format version.
6890 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6891 and format it accordingly.
6893 *** Configuration Variables
6895 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6896 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6897 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6898 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6901 format:symbol-case-conv
6902 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6903 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6904 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6905 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6906 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6908 format:iobj-case-conv
6909 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6910 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6913 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6916 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6922 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6923 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6924 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6925 `format' padding style.
6928 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6929 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6930 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6931 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6935 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6936 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6937 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6940 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6941 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6942 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6943 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6944 parameters or modifiers)).
6947 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6949 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6951 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6952 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6954 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6955 string-downcase! functions.
6957 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6958 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6960 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6963 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6966 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6967 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6969 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6971 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6972 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6974 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6975 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6976 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6977 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6978 would if STRING were input.
6980 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6982 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6983 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6984 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6985 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6988 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6990 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6991 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6994 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6996 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6997 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6999 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
7000 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
7002 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
7003 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
7004 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
7005 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
7007 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
7008 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
7010 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
7011 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
7012 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
7014 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
7015 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
7017 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
7018 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
7019 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
7020 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
7021 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
7023 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
7024 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
7025 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
7026 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
7027 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
7028 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
7030 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
7031 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
7032 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
7035 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
7036 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
7037 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
7038 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
7039 the following grammar:
7040 ((apples (single-char #\a))
7041 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
7042 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
7043 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
7044 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
7045 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
7046 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
7047 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
7048 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
7049 last option in its combination)
7051 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
7052 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
7053 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
7054 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
7056 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
7057 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
7058 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
7060 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
7061 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
7062 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
7064 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
7065 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
7066 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
7067 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
7068 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
7069 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
7070 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
7071 ordinary argument strings.
7073 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
7074 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
7075 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
7076 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
7078 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
7079 as a list, associated with the empty list.
7081 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
7082 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
7083 - a required option is omitted
7084 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
7085 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
7086 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
7087 - an option predicate fails
7092 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
7095 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
7096 (verbose (required? #f)
7099 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
7100 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
7101 (predicate ,string?))))
7103 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
7104 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
7106 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
7107 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
7108 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
7109 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
7112 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
7114 It will be removed in a few releases.
7116 ** New syntax: lambda*
7117 ** New syntax: define*
7118 ** New syntax: define*-public
7119 ** New syntax: defmacro*
7120 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
7121 Guile now supports optional arguments.
7123 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
7124 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
7125 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
7126 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
7127 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
7129 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
7130 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
7131 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
7133 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
7135 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
7136 and examples for `lambda*':
7139 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
7141 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
7142 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
7143 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
7144 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
7145 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
7146 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
7147 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
7148 can be checked with the bound? macro.
7150 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
7152 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
7153 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
7154 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
7155 are given as keywords are bound to values.
7157 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
7158 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
7159 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
7160 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
7161 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
7162 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
7163 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
7164 and until the procedure is called.
7166 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
7168 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
7169 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
7170 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
7171 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
7172 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
7173 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
7174 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
7175 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
7176 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
7177 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
7179 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
7180 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
7181 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
7182 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
7185 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
7187 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
7188 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
7189 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
7190 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
7192 ** New syntax: and-let*
7193 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
7195 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
7196 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
7197 (<variable> <expression>)
7200 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
7201 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
7202 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
7205 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
7206 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
7207 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
7208 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
7209 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
7210 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
7211 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
7213 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
7214 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
7215 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
7216 shadow earlier bindings.
7218 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
7220 ** New sorting functions
7222 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
7223 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
7224 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
7225 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
7227 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
7228 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
7231 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
7232 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
7233 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
7235 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
7236 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
7237 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
7238 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
7240 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
7241 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
7242 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
7243 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
7244 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
7247 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
7248 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
7249 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
7250 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
7251 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
7252 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
7254 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
7255 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
7256 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
7258 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
7259 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
7260 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
7263 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
7264 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
7265 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
7267 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
7268 Added for compatibility with scsh.
7270 ** New built-in random number support
7272 *** New function: random N [STATE]
7273 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
7274 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
7275 returned have a uniform distribution.
7277 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
7278 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
7279 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
7280 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
7281 effect of the `random' operation.
7283 *** New variable: *random-state*
7284 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
7285 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
7286 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
7287 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
7288 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
7291 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
7292 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
7293 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
7294 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
7295 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
7297 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
7298 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
7299 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
7300 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
7301 initialized using SEED.
7303 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
7304 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
7305 range between 0 and 1.
7307 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7308 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
7309 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
7310 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
7311 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
7312 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
7313 or a uniform vector of doubles.
7315 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7316 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
7317 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
7318 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
7319 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
7320 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7322 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
7323 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
7324 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
7325 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
7327 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
7328 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
7329 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
7330 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7332 *** New function: random:exp STATE
7333 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
7334 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
7336 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
7338 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
7341 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
7342 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
7345 ** New function: make-guardian
7346 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
7347 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
7348 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
7349 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
7350 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
7352 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
7353 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
7354 one object if at all.
7356 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
7357 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
7358 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
7360 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
7361 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
7362 read again in last-in first-out order.
7364 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
7365 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
7367 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
7369 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
7370 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
7371 file position is used.
7373 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
7374 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
7375 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
7377 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
7378 redefined using seek.
7380 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
7381 size is not supplied.
7383 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
7384 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
7386 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
7387 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
7389 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
7391 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
7392 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
7393 and returns the contents as a single string.
7395 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
7396 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
7397 lists in serial order.
7399 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
7400 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
7401 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
7403 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
7404 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
7405 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
7406 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
7408 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
7409 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
7410 and #f if an error occured.
7412 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
7414 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
7415 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
7416 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
7417 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
7419 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
7421 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
7424 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
7426 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
7429 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7433 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
7434 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
7436 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
7437 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
7441 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7443 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
7445 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
7446 binds a variable named NAME to it.
7448 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
7450 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
7451 might change when we get the new module system.
7453 ** The smob interface
7455 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
7456 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
7458 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
7460 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
7464 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
7465 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
7466 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
7467 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
7468 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
7469 will be freed by the default free function.
7471 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7472 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
7473 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7474 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7476 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7477 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
7478 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7479 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7481 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
7483 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
7484 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
7488 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
7489 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7490 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7492 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
7493 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
7494 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7495 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7497 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
7498 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
7499 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
7501 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
7502 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
7503 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
7504 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
7506 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
7507 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
7508 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
7510 *** scm_newptob has been removed
7514 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
7516 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
7517 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
7518 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
7520 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
7521 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
7522 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
7524 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
7525 a string port's buffer.
7527 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
7528 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
7529 function pointers which together define the current random number
7530 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
7531 number library functions.
7533 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
7536 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
7537 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
7540 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
7541 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7543 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
7544 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
7546 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
7547 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
7550 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
7551 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
7552 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
7553 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
7555 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
7556 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
7557 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
7558 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
7559 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
7560 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
7561 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
7563 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
7564 by libguile and the application.
7566 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7567 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7568 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
7569 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
7571 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
7572 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
7574 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7575 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
7576 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
7578 ** Random number library functions
7579 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
7580 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
7581 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
7583 The default random state is stored in:
7585 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
7586 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
7587 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
7592 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
7594 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
7595 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
7596 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
7597 isn't a random state.
7599 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
7600 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
7602 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
7603 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
7604 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
7605 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
7607 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7608 Return 32 random bits.
7610 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7611 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
7613 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7614 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
7616 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7617 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
7619 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
7620 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7622 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
7623 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7624 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
7628 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
7630 * Changes to the distribution
7632 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
7633 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
7634 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
7637 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
7638 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
7639 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
7641 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
7642 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
7643 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
7644 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
7647 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
7648 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
7649 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
7651 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7653 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
7655 *** Function: batch-mode?
7657 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
7660 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
7662 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
7663 case has not been implemented.
7665 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
7666 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
7667 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
7670 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
7671 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
7673 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
7675 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7677 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
7679 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
7680 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
7683 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
7684 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
7685 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
7686 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
7689 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
7691 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
7692 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
7693 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
7694 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
7695 find those libraries.
7697 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
7698 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
7701 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
7703 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
7704 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
7705 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
7706 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
7708 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
7709 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
7710 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
7714 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
7716 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7717 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7718 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7721 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7722 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7723 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7724 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7726 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7727 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7730 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7731 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7732 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7733 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7734 compiler where to find the libraries.
7736 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7737 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7738 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7740 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7741 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7742 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7743 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7744 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7748 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7750 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7751 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7752 internationalization support.
7754 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7755 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7756 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7757 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7758 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7760 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7761 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7762 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7763 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7764 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7766 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7767 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7768 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7769 any GNU mirror site.
7771 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7773 ** New function: add-history STRING
7774 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7775 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7776 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7778 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7780 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7781 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7782 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7785 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7786 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7787 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7789 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7791 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7794 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7795 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7798 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7799 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7800 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7801 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7802 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7803 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7805 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7806 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7807 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7808 of the form mentioned above.
7810 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7811 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7812 returned in the special `rest' list.
7814 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7815 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7817 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7819 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7821 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7823 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7824 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7825 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7826 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7827 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7828 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7829 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7830 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7833 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7835 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7837 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7838 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7841 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7842 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7843 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7847 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7848 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7849 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7850 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7851 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7852 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7853 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7854 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7857 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7859 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7860 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7861 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7863 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7865 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7866 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7868 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7869 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7870 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7872 Why do we have this function?
7873 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7874 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7875 primitive, and display it differently, and
7876 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7877 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7880 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7881 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7884 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7885 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7886 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7887 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7889 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7890 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7893 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7894 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7896 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7898 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7899 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7900 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7901 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7902 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7903 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7904 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7907 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7909 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7910 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7912 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7913 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7914 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7915 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7916 properly continue the print chain.
7918 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7919 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7920 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7921 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7922 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7923 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7924 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7925 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7927 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7928 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7929 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7930 safest to not check for these pairs.
7932 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7933 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7934 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7935 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7937 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7939 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7940 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7942 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7944 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7946 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7947 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7948 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7950 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7951 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7952 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7954 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7955 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7956 the following functions and macros:
7958 Function: make-fluid
7960 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7961 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7962 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7963 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7964 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7966 Function: fluid? OBJ
7968 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7970 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7971 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7973 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7974 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7976 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7978 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7979 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7980 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7981 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7982 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7983 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7984 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7986 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7988 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7989 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7990 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7991 should evaluate to a fluid.
7993 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7995 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7996 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7997 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7998 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7999 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
8001 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
8004 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
8006 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
8008 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
8010 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
8013 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
8014 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
8015 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
8016 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
8017 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
8020 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
8021 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
8022 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
8024 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
8025 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
8026 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
8028 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
8029 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
8030 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
8031 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
8033 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
8034 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
8035 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
8036 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
8038 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
8039 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
8040 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
8041 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
8043 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
8044 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
8045 their revealed counts set to zero.
8047 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
8048 Returns an integer file descriptor.
8050 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
8051 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
8053 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
8054 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
8056 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
8057 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
8058 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
8060 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
8061 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
8062 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
8064 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
8065 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
8066 default environment inherited by child processes.
8068 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
8069 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
8070 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
8072 The return value is unspecified.
8074 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
8075 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
8076 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
8077 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
8078 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
8080 The return value is unspecified.
8082 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
8083 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
8091 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
8092 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
8095 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
8098 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
8099 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
8100 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
8102 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
8103 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
8104 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
8105 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
8108 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
8109 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
8111 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
8112 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
8113 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
8114 the `environ' procedure.
8116 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
8117 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
8120 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
8121 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
8123 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
8124 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
8125 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
8126 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
8128 *** procedure: times
8129 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
8130 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
8131 return a selected component:
8134 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
8138 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
8141 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
8145 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
8146 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
8150 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
8151 terminated child processes.
8153 ** Removed: list-length
8154 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
8155 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
8157 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
8159 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
8161 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
8163 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
8164 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
8165 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
8166 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
8168 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
8169 extra complexity it introduces.
8171 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
8172 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
8174 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
8175 variable to any non-empty value.
8177 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
8178 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
8180 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8182 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
8183 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
8185 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
8187 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
8188 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
8190 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
8192 ** vector handling routines
8194 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
8195 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
8196 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
8197 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
8198 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
8200 ** pair and list routines
8202 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
8205 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
8207 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
8210 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8212 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
8214 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
8215 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
8216 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
8217 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
8218 site-specific initialization code.
8220 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
8221 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
8222 initialization processes.
8224 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
8225 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
8226 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
8227 initialized properly.
8229 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
8230 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
8231 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
8233 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
8234 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
8235 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
8236 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
8237 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
8239 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
8241 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
8242 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
8243 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
8244 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
8245 objects the smob refers to get marked.
8247 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
8248 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
8249 which look like this:
8252 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
8254 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
8255 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
8258 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
8259 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
8262 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
8264 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
8265 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
8266 you will need to change your functions slightly.
8268 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
8269 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
8270 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
8271 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
8272 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
8274 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
8275 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
8277 int (*free) (SCM port);
8278 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
8279 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
8280 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
8284 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
8285 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
8286 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
8288 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
8291 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
8292 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
8293 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
8295 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
8296 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
8297 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
8300 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
8304 struct timeval *timeout);
8306 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
8307 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
8308 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
8309 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
8310 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
8311 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
8313 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
8314 scm_catch_body_t body,
8316 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8319 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
8320 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
8321 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
8322 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
8323 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
8324 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
8326 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
8328 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8331 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
8332 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
8333 spawning threads from application C code.
8335 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
8336 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
8337 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
8338 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
8339 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
8340 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
8342 ** Removed functions:
8344 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
8345 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
8347 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
8349 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
8350 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
8352 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
8354 ** mbstrings are now removed
8356 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
8357 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
8359 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
8361 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
8362 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
8363 their new names and arguments:
8365 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
8366 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
8367 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
8368 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
8371 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
8373 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
8375 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
8378 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
8380 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
8381 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
8382 pass a #f arg to catch.
8384 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
8386 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
8387 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
8390 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
8391 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
8392 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
8393 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
8394 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
8395 reclaim its storage.
8397 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
8398 worrying that some other function you call will call
8399 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
8400 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
8401 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
8402 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
8405 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
8407 * Changes to the distribution
8409 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
8410 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
8413 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
8414 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
8416 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8417 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8419 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
8421 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
8422 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
8423 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
8425 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8427 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
8428 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
8429 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
8430 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
8431 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
8432 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
8434 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
8435 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
8436 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
8439 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
8440 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
8441 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
8442 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
8444 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
8445 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
8446 libraries to your link command:
8448 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
8449 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
8450 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8451 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8453 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
8454 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
8455 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
8457 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
8459 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
8460 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
8463 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
8465 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
8466 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
8467 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
8468 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
8469 searched is system dependent.
8471 (dynamic-object? VAL)
8473 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
8475 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
8477 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
8478 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
8480 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8482 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
8483 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
8484 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
8485 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
8486 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
8489 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8491 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
8492 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
8493 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
8494 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
8495 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
8497 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
8499 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
8500 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
8502 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
8504 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
8505 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
8506 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
8509 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
8511 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
8512 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
8513 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
8514 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
8516 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
8517 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
8519 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
8521 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
8522 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
8524 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
8526 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
8527 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
8535 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
8537 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
8538 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
8539 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
8540 a more informative way.
8542 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
8543 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
8544 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
8545 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
8546 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
8547 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
8549 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
8550 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
8553 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
8554 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
8555 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
8558 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
8559 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
8560 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
8561 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
8562 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
8563 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
8565 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
8566 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
8567 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
8568 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
8571 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
8572 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
8573 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
8574 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
8575 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
8576 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
8578 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
8579 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
8580 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
8581 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
8582 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
8584 *** regexp functions
8586 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
8587 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
8588 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
8590 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
8591 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
8592 with SCSH regular expressions.
8594 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
8595 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
8596 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
8597 position of STR at which to begin matching.
8599 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
8600 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
8601 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
8602 `string-match' returns `#f'.
8604 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
8605 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
8606 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
8607 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
8608 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
8609 match strings against the compiled regexp.
8611 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
8612 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
8613 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
8614 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
8615 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
8617 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8619 **** Constant: regexp/extended
8620 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
8621 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
8622 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
8624 **** Constant: regexp/icase
8625 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
8626 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
8628 **** Constant: regexp/newline
8629 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
8631 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
8634 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
8635 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8636 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
8638 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
8639 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8640 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
8642 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
8643 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
8644 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
8645 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
8646 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
8649 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8651 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
8652 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
8653 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
8654 used when different portions of a string are passed to
8655 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
8656 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
8658 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
8659 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
8660 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
8662 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
8663 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
8666 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
8667 and replace them with the contents of another string.
8669 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
8670 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
8671 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
8672 may be one of the following arguments:
8674 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
8676 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
8678 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
8679 the regexp match is written.
8681 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
8682 following the regexp match is written.
8684 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
8685 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
8688 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
8689 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
8690 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
8691 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
8692 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
8693 which should be matched against this regular expression.
8695 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
8698 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
8699 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
8700 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
8701 written out to PORT.
8703 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
8704 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
8705 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
8706 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
8707 will return after processing a single match.
8709 *** Match Structures
8711 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
8712 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
8713 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
8714 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
8715 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
8716 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8719 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8720 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8721 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8722 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8723 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8725 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8726 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8727 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8729 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8730 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8731 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8732 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8733 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8735 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8736 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8738 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8739 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8741 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8742 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8744 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8745 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8747 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8748 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8749 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8750 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8752 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8753 Return the original TARGET string.
8755 *** Backslash Escapes
8757 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8758 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8759 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8760 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8761 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8762 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8764 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8765 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8766 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8767 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8768 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8769 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8770 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8771 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8773 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8774 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8775 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8776 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8777 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8778 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8779 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8781 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8782 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8783 return the resulting string.
8785 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8786 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8787 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8788 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8789 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8790 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8791 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8792 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8793 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8794 translated to the single character `*'.
8796 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8797 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8798 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8799 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8800 consecutive backslashes:
8802 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8804 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8805 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8806 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8808 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8809 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8810 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8811 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8812 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8813 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8815 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8817 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8818 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8819 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8820 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8821 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8822 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8823 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8824 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8825 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8826 cumbersome escape syntax.
8828 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8830 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8832 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8834 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8837 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8839 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8841 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8844 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8845 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8846 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8847 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8848 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8850 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8851 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8852 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8853 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8854 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8855 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8856 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8859 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8860 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8861 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8864 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8865 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8867 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8868 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8869 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8870 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8871 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8872 installed, you can say:
8874 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8877 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8879 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8880 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8881 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8882 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8883 new dynamic roots and threads.
8886 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8888 * Changes to the distribution.
8890 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8892 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8893 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8894 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8895 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8896 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8897 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8898 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8899 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8901 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8904 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8905 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8910 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8912 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8913 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8915 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8916 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8917 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8918 the (command-line) function.
8919 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8920 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8921 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8923 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8924 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8925 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8926 command line arguments
8927 -ds do -s script at this point
8928 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8929 -h, --help display this help and exit
8930 -v, --version display version information and exit
8931 \ read arguments from following script lines
8933 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8934 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8936 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8939 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8943 (main (command-line))
8945 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8947 ekko a speckled gecko
8949 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8950 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8951 following list of command-line arguments:
8953 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8955 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8956 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8957 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8958 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8959 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8961 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8963 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8965 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8966 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8969 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8970 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8971 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8972 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8974 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8975 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8976 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8977 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8979 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8983 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8987 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8989 ekko a speckled gecko
8991 Unix expands this into
8993 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8995 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8996 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8998 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
9000 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
9001 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
9003 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
9004 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
9005 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
9006 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
9007 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
9008 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
9009 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
9010 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
9011 it only terminates the argument list.)
9012 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
9013 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
9014 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
9015 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
9016 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
9017 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
9018 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
9019 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
9021 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
9023 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
9024 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
9025 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
9026 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
9027 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
9029 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
9030 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
9031 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
9033 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
9035 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
9036 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
9037 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
9038 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
9041 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
9042 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
9043 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
9045 * Changes to Scheme functions
9047 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
9048 and disabled by default.
9050 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
9051 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
9052 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
9053 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
9055 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
9057 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
9059 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
9060 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
9062 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
9063 (read-set! keywords #f)
9065 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
9066 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
9067 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
9070 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
9071 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
9072 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
9075 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
9076 support for Scheme functions.
9078 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
9079 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
9080 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
9081 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
9084 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
9085 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
9086 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
9089 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
9090 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
9091 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
9094 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
9095 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
9096 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
9097 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
9098 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
9099 display the result as a prompt.
9100 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
9102 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
9103 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
9104 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
9107 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
9108 procedure of zero arguments.
9110 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
9111 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
9112 argument is bound in the current module.
9114 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
9115 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
9116 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
9117 public bindings into the current module.
9119 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
9120 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
9122 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
9123 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
9125 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
9126 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
9128 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
9129 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
9131 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
9132 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
9134 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
9135 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
9136 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
9137 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
9138 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
9140 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
9141 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
9142 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
9143 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
9145 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
9148 ** Changes to I/O functions
9150 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
9151 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
9152 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
9154 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
9155 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
9156 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
9158 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
9159 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
9161 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
9162 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
9163 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
9164 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
9166 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
9168 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
9169 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
9171 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
9172 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
9173 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
9174 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
9175 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
9178 'trim omit delimiter from result
9179 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
9180 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
9181 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
9183 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
9185 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
9186 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
9188 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
9189 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
9190 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
9191 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
9192 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
9194 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
9195 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
9196 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
9198 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
9199 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
9200 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
9201 above, and defaults to 'peek.
9203 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
9204 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
9206 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
9207 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
9209 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
9211 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
9212 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
9213 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
9214 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
9215 a delimiting character.
9216 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
9218 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
9219 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
9220 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
9221 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
9222 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
9223 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
9225 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
9226 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
9228 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
9229 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
9230 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
9232 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
9233 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
9234 the array to read and write.
9236 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
9237 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
9240 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
9242 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
9245 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
9246 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
9247 Values for COMMAND are:
9249 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
9250 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
9251 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
9252 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
9253 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
9254 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
9255 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
9256 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
9258 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
9260 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
9261 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
9262 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
9263 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
9264 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
9265 corresponding return set will be the same.
9267 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
9270 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
9271 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
9272 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
9273 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
9274 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
9275 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
9276 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
9277 special file being created.
9279 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
9280 clashing with various SCSH forks.
9282 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
9283 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
9284 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
9285 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
9286 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
9287 and originating address.
9289 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
9290 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
9291 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
9293 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
9296 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
9297 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
9300 (status:exit-val STATUS)
9301 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
9302 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
9303 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
9304 this function returns #f.
9306 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
9307 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
9308 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
9311 (status:term-sig STATUS)
9312 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
9313 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
9316 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
9317 a valid STATUS value.
9319 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
9321 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
9322 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
9324 Component Accessor Setter
9325 ========================= ============ ============
9326 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
9327 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
9328 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
9329 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
9330 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
9331 year tm:year set-tm:year
9332 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
9333 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
9334 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
9335 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
9336 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
9338 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
9339 describing the host system:
9342 ============================================== ================
9343 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
9344 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
9345 release level of the operating system utsname:release
9346 version level of the operating system utsname:version
9347 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
9349 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
9350 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
9351 system's user database:
9354 ====================== =================
9355 user name passwd:name
9356 user password passwd:passwd
9359 real name passwd:gecos
9360 home directory passwd:dir
9361 shell program passwd:shell
9363 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
9364 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
9365 system's group database:
9368 ======================= ============
9369 group name group:name
9370 group password group:passwd
9372 group members group:mem
9374 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
9375 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
9379 ========================= ===============
9380 official name of host hostent:name
9381 alias list hostent:aliases
9382 host address type hostent:addrtype
9383 length of address hostent:length
9384 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
9386 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
9387 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
9391 ========================= ===============
9392 official name of net netent:name
9393 alias list netent:aliases
9394 net number type netent:addrtype
9395 net number netent:net
9397 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
9398 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
9402 ========================= ===============
9403 official protocol name protoent:name
9404 alias list protoent:aliases
9405 protocol number protoent:proto
9407 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
9408 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
9412 ========================= ===============
9413 official service name servent:name
9414 alias list servent:aliases
9415 port number servent:port
9416 protocol to use servent:proto
9418 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
9419 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
9422 ======================================== ===============
9423 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
9424 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
9425 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
9426 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
9428 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
9429 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
9430 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
9432 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
9433 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
9435 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
9436 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
9438 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
9439 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
9441 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
9443 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
9445 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
9446 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
9447 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
9449 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
9450 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
9451 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
9452 return the remaining characters as a string.
9454 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
9455 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
9456 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
9458 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
9460 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9462 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
9465 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
9468 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
9469 and returns the array
9471 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
9472 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
9473 the user to interpret the data both ways.
9475 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9477 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
9478 symbol's value from C code:
9480 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
9481 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
9482 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
9483 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
9485 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
9486 without assigning them a value.
9488 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
9489 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
9490 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
9492 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
9493 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
9494 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
9496 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
9497 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
9499 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
9500 doesn't actually care about that.
9502 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
9503 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
9504 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
9506 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
9507 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
9508 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
9509 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
9510 which we have just created and initialized.
9512 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
9513 should one occur. We call it like this:
9514 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
9516 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
9517 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
9518 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
9519 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
9520 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
9521 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
9524 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
9525 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
9526 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
9527 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
9528 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
9529 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
9530 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
9533 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
9534 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
9535 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
9536 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
9537 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
9540 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
9541 scm_internal_catch, except:
9543 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
9544 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
9545 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
9546 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
9549 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
9550 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
9551 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
9553 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
9554 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
9555 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
9556 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
9559 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
9560 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
9561 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
9563 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
9564 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
9565 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
9566 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
9567 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
9569 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
9570 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
9571 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
9573 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
9574 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
9575 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
9577 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
9578 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
9580 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
9581 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
9582 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
9585 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
9586 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
9587 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
9588 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
9589 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
9590 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
9591 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
9594 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
9595 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
9597 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
9598 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
9599 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
9600 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
9601 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
9604 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
9605 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
9607 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
9608 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
9611 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
9612 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
9614 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9617 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
9618 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
9619 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
9620 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
9621 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
9622 given the following arguments:
9624 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
9626 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
9628 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
9630 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9633 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
9634 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
9635 command-line arguments.
9637 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
9638 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
9639 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
9640 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
9641 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
9642 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
9645 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9648 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
9649 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
9651 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
9652 rearranged slightly. They are now:
9654 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9655 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9656 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
9657 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
9659 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9660 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9662 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9663 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
9664 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9665 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
9667 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9668 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9670 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
9671 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
9673 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
9675 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
9676 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
9677 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
9680 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
9681 returns a port instead of an FD object.
9683 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
9684 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
9689 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
9692 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
9694 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
9695 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
9696 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
9697 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
9699 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
9701 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
9703 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
9704 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
9705 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
9706 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
9707 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
9708 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
9709 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
9710 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
9711 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
9712 for more information.
9714 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
9715 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9717 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9718 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9719 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9720 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9721 following two lines at the top of the file:
9723 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9726 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9727 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9728 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9730 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9732 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9734 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9737 (display (car args))
9738 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9740 (loop (cdr args)))))
9743 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9744 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9745 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9746 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9747 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9748 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9752 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9755 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9758 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9760 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9761 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9762 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9763 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9764 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9767 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9768 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9769 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9770 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9771 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9774 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9777 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9778 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9779 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9782 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9783 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9784 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9786 to see a backtrace, and
9787 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9788 to see them by default.
9792 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9794 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9796 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9797 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9800 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9801 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9802 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9803 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9806 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9807 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9808 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9809 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9810 functions which inspired them.
9812 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9813 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9817 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9819 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9821 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9822 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9825 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9826 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9827 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9829 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9830 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9831 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9832 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9833 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9835 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9837 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9838 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9839 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9842 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9845 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9847 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9848 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9849 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9850 above should serve their purposes.
9852 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9853 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9854 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9855 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9857 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9860 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9861 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9862 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9863 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9865 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9866 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9867 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9868 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9870 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9871 for the `read' function.
9874 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9875 to that of `integer?'.
9877 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9878 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9880 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9881 it simply returns the object's property list.
9883 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9884 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9885 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9886 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9888 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9890 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9893 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9895 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9896 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9898 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9900 void (*main_func) (),
9903 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9904 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9905 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9906 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9907 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9909 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9910 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9911 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9912 know which arguments have been processed.
9914 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9915 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9916 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9917 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9918 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9920 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9921 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9922 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9923 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9924 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9925 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9926 people from making that mistake.
9928 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9929 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9931 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9933 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9937 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9940 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9941 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9942 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9943 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9946 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9947 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9948 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9949 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9952 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9953 have been added to the Guile library.
9955 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9956 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9957 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9960 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9961 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9962 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9964 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9965 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9966 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9967 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9968 argument from the list.
9971 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9974 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9975 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9977 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9978 to a Scheme port object.
9980 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9981 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9986 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9988 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9989 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9990 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9991 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9992 code as a special datatype.
9994 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9995 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9996 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9997 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9998 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
10001 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
10002 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
10003 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
10004 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
10005 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
10007 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
10010 Copyright information:
10012 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10014 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
10015 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
10016 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
10017 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
10019 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
10020 of this document, or of portions of it,
10021 under the above conditions, provided also that they
10022 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
10027 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"