1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
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12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
15 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
21 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
22 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
24 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
25 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
27 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
28 This slightly improves program startup times.
30 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
31 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
33 * Changes to the C interface
35 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
37 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
39 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
42 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
43 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
47 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
49 * New features (see the manual for details)
51 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
53 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
55 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
56 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
57 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
59 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
61 * Changes to the distribution
63 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
65 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
66 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
70 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
71 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
72 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
73 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
74 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
75 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
76 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
77 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
78 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
79 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
80 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
81 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
82 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
83 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
85 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
86 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
89 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
91 * Infrastructure changes
93 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
95 The new repository can be accessed using
96 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
97 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
99 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
101 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
103 * New modules (see the manual for details)
107 * New features (see the manual for details)
109 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
110 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
111 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
113 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
114 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
115 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
116 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
118 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
120 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
121 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
122 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
126 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
127 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
129 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
130 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
132 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
133 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
135 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
136 lead to a stack overflow.
138 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
139 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
140 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
141 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
142 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
143 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
144 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
145 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
146 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
147 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
148 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
149 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
150 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
151 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
152 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
153 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
155 * Changes to the distribution
159 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
160 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
163 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
167 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
168 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
169 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
170 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
171 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
172 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
173 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
174 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
175 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
176 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
177 system and library calls.
178 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
179 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
180 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
181 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
182 uniform vectors on AIX.
183 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
184 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
185 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
186 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
187 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
189 * New modules (see the manual for details)
193 * Documentation fixes and improvements
195 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
197 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
198 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
200 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
202 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
204 * Changes to the distribution
206 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
208 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
209 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
210 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
212 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
214 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
217 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
219 * New modules (see the manual for details)
226 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
227 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
228 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
229 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
230 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
231 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
232 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
234 * Implementation improvements
236 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
237 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
241 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
243 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
245 ** set-program-arguments
250 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
251 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
252 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
253 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
254 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
255 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
257 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
258 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
259 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
260 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
261 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
262 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
263 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
264 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
265 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
266 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
267 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
268 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
269 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
270 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
271 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
272 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
275 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
277 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
279 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
281 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
282 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
283 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
284 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
285 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
286 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
292 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
296 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
298 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
300 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
302 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
304 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
306 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
308 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
309 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
310 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
312 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
314 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
316 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
317 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
319 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
321 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
322 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
324 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
326 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
328 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
330 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
332 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
334 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
336 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
338 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
340 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
342 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
343 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
344 file was on a different device.
347 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
349 * Changes to the distribution
351 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
353 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
355 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
357 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
359 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
361 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
364 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
366 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
367 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
368 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
369 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
370 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
371 items like the versioned share directory name
372 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
374 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
375 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
376 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
377 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
378 with each micro release during a stable series.
380 ** Thread implementation has changed.
382 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
383 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
384 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
385 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
386 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
389 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
390 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
391 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
392 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
395 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
396 in which case "null" threads are used.
398 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
399 "Blocking", and others.
401 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
403 This is a milder form of deprecation.
405 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
406 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
407 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
408 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
409 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
411 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
412 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
414 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
416 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
417 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
419 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
422 This SRFI is always available.
424 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
426 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
427 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
428 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
429 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
432 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
434 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
435 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
436 parameters without currying.
438 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
440 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
441 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
443 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
444 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
447 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
448 with a renaming import, for example.
450 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
452 The official version is good enough now.
454 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
456 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
457 provided. Use 'make html'.
459 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
461 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
462 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
463 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
464 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
466 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
468 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
471 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
473 ** New command line option `-L'.
475 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
477 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
479 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
480 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
482 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
484 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
485 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
487 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
489 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
490 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
493 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
496 (define-module (demo)
500 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
503 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
505 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
507 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
508 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
509 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
511 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
513 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
514 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
516 ** New function hashx-remove!
518 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
520 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
521 barriers and dynamic states.
523 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
524 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
525 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
528 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
529 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
530 Barriers" in the manual.
532 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
533 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
535 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
537 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
538 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
539 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
542 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
544 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
545 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
547 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
548 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
549 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
551 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
552 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
554 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
555 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
556 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
558 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
559 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
560 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
563 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
564 substrings and read-only strings.
566 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
567 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
570 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
572 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
581 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
582 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
583 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
585 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
586 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
587 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
590 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
591 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
594 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
596 See the manual for details.
598 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
600 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
603 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
605 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
606 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
607 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
608 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
610 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
611 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
612 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
615 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
617 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
618 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
629 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
633 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
638 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
642 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
646 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
649 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
650 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
651 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
652 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
654 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
655 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
658 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
661 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
665 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
667 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
668 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
669 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
672 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
675 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
677 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
680 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
681 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
689 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
690 has been detected is to
692 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
693 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
694 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
697 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
700 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
702 to your .guile init file.
704 ** New define-module option: :replace
706 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
709 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
710 for the core binding `format'.
712 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
714 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
715 a prefix to all imported bindings.
718 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
720 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
723 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
725 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
726 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
727 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
729 ** New function: effective-version
731 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
732 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
733 to the distribution" above.
735 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
737 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
738 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
740 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
742 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
743 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
745 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
747 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
748 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
751 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
753 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
755 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
757 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
758 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
759 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
762 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
763 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
764 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
767 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
768 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
770 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
771 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
772 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
775 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
777 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
778 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
781 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
782 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
784 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
785 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
786 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
787 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
788 level for the current thread.
790 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
792 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
794 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
795 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
798 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
800 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
802 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
805 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
807 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
810 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
811 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
812 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
814 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
815 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
816 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
817 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
828 ERROR: Numerical overflow
830 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
833 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
835 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
836 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
837 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
848 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
850 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
851 them is also done exactly, of course:
856 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
859 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
860 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
862 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
864 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
865 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
866 equal to a floating point number. For example:
868 (inexact->exact 1.234)
869 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
871 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
873 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
876 ** New function 'rationalize'.
878 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
879 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
881 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
884 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
885 result when both its arguments are exact.
887 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
889 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
890 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
891 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
893 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
895 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
896 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
897 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
899 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
902 ** pretty-print has more options.
904 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
905 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
906 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
908 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
910 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
911 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
912 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
914 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
916 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
917 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
919 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
921 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
922 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
925 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
927 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
928 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
929 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
930 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
931 without the soft port blocking.
933 ** Deprecated: undefine
935 There is no replacement for undefine.
937 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
938 have been discouraged.
940 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
941 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
942 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
945 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
947 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
949 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
950 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
951 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
952 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
955 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
956 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
957 be removed in the next major Guile release.
959 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
961 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
962 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
963 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
964 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
965 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
966 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
968 * Changes to the C interface
970 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
971 take a 'delete' function argument.
973 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
974 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
976 This is an incompatible change.
978 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
980 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
981 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
982 --disable-deprecated.
984 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
986 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
987 Scheme values has been added.
989 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
990 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
995 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
996 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
998 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1000 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1001 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1004 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1006 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1007 scm_from_int for ints.
1009 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1010 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1011 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1013 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1015 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1016 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1017 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1020 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1022 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1024 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1026 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1027 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1028 following alternatives.
1030 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1031 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1032 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1033 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1035 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1036 do the validating for you.
1038 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1039 have been discouraged.
1041 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1042 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1045 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1047 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1048 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1051 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1053 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1056 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1059 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1061 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1062 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1064 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1065 scm_truncate_number should have.
1067 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1068 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1070 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1073 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1074 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1075 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1077 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1078 easier to use from C.
1080 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1081 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1083 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1084 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1085 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1088 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1089 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1090 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1091 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1094 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1095 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1096 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1097 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1098 and is thus quite efficient.
1100 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1102 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1103 about the character encoding.
1105 Replace according to the following table:
1107 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1108 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1109 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1110 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1111 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1112 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1113 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1114 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1115 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1117 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1118 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1120 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1122 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1123 now also available to C code.
1125 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1127 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1128 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1129 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1131 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1134 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1136 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1137 unceremoniously removed.
1139 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1140 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1141 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1143 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1144 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1145 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1146 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1147 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1148 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1151 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1153 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1154 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1155 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1156 manual for more details.
1158 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1159 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1161 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1162 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1163 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1165 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1167 Migrate according to the following table:
1169 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1170 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1171 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1172 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1173 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1174 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1175 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1177 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1178 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1179 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1180 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1181 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1182 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1183 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1185 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1187 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1188 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1190 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1191 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1192 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1193 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1195 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1197 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1198 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1199 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1201 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1202 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1204 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1205 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1206 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1207 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1209 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1211 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1212 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1213 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1214 prevent a potential memory leak:
1221 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1223 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1224 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1226 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1227 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1234 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1235 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1239 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1241 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1243 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1244 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1245 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1247 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1248 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1250 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1252 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1254 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1255 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1256 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1258 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1259 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1261 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1262 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1263 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1264 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1267 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1269 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1270 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1271 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1273 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1275 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1276 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1278 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1280 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1281 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1283 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1285 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1286 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1287 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1289 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1291 You should not have used them.
1293 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1295 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1296 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1298 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1300 This macro is not intended for public use.
1302 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1304 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1306 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1308 Use scm_is_real instead.
1310 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1312 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1314 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1316 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1317 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1319 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1320 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1322 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1323 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1325 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1327 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1330 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1332 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1333 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1334 to the distribution" above.
1336 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1338 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1339 arguments are now passed directly:
1341 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1343 This is an incompatible change.
1345 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1347 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1348 function in the init section.
1350 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1352 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1354 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1355 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1356 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1357 stays roughly constant.
1359 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1360 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1361 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1362 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1363 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1366 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1367 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1368 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1369 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1371 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1372 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1373 objects for every type.
1376 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1378 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1380 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1382 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1383 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1384 initializes a new cell (see below).
1386 ** New functions for memory management
1388 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1389 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1390 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1391 cause aborts in long running programs.
1393 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1394 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1396 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1397 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1398 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1399 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1400 details and for upgrading instructions.
1402 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1403 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1404 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1406 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1408 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1409 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1410 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1411 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1412 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1414 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1415 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1416 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1418 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1419 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1421 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1423 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1424 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1425 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1426 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1427 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1429 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1431 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1434 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1436 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1438 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1440 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1441 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1443 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1445 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1446 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1448 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1449 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1451 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1453 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1455 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1456 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1457 blocking it is not well defined.
1459 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1461 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1462 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1463 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1464 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1465 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1466 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1467 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1468 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1469 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1470 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1471 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1472 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1473 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1474 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1475 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1476 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1477 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1478 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1479 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1480 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1481 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1482 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1483 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1484 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1485 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1486 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1487 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1488 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1489 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1490 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1491 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1493 * Changes to bundled modules
1497 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1498 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1499 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1500 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1501 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1504 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1506 * Changes to the distribution
1508 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1510 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1512 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1513 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1514 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1515 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1516 indicate major changes in Guile.
1518 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1519 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1520 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1521 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1523 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1524 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1525 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1526 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1527 micro version number.
1529 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1531 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1533 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1534 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1536 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1538 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1539 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1540 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1542 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1544 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1545 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1546 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1549 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1551 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1554 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1556 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1557 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1559 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1561 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1562 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1565 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1567 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1570 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1573 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1575 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1577 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1578 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1579 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1581 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1583 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1585 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1588 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1590 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1592 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1594 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1595 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1596 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1598 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1600 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1602 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1603 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1612 See README there for more info.
1614 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1615 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1618 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1620 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1622 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1624 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1625 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1626 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1628 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1630 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1631 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1632 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1634 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1635 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1637 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1640 (oop goops describe)
1642 (oop goops active-slot)
1643 (oop goops composite-slot)
1645 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1646 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1647 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1649 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1651 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1652 in the default environment:
1654 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1655 %read-line write-line
1657 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1658 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1660 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1662 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1665 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1666 can be used for similar functionality.
1668 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1670 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1671 it defines two procedures:
1673 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1675 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1676 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1677 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1680 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1682 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1683 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1684 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1685 write large strings.
1687 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1689 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1690 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1692 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1694 for complete documentation.
1696 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1698 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1699 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1700 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1701 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1703 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1704 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1708 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1709 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1710 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1713 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1716 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1717 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1719 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1720 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1723 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1726 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1728 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1730 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1732 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1734 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1735 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1736 Scheme programs easier.
1738 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1739 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1740 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1741 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1742 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1745 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1746 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1748 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1751 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1753 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1754 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1755 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1758 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1760 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1762 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1763 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1764 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1765 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1766 was also ASCII, for example.
1768 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1770 tag - no replacement.
1771 fseek - replaced by seek.
1772 list* - replaced by cons*.
1774 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1778 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1779 (define m (make-safe-module))
1780 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1781 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1782 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1784 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1786 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1787 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1788 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1790 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1792 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1793 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1794 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1795 from the issues related to the module system.
1797 *** New function: load-extension
1799 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1801 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1803 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1804 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1805 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1807 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1809 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1810 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1811 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1812 support dynamic linking).
1814 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1816 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1817 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1818 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1819 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1822 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1823 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1824 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1825 library and initialize it explicitly.
1827 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1828 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1830 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1832 (define-module (foo bar))
1834 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1836 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1838 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1839 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1841 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1842 (null-environment 5)
1843 (interaction-environment)
1849 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1851 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1852 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1853 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1854 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1856 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1857 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1858 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1859 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1860 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1861 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1862 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1863 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1864 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1865 one eval to the next.
1867 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1868 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1869 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1870 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1871 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1873 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1874 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1875 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1876 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1877 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1878 used in a lexical environment.
1880 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1881 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1882 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1883 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1884 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1885 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1887 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1889 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1890 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1891 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1892 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1893 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1895 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1896 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1897 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1899 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1900 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1902 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1903 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1904 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1906 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1907 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1909 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1910 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1911 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1912 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1915 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1916 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1917 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1918 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1920 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1921 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1922 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1924 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1925 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1926 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1927 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1928 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1930 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1932 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1933 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1934 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1936 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1937 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1938 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1940 See manual for more info.
1942 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1944 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1945 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1946 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1948 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1950 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1951 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1952 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1954 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1955 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1956 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1957 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1959 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1961 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1962 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1964 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1965 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1966 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1967 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1968 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1971 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1972 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1973 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1974 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1975 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1976 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1978 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1979 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1980 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1981 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1982 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1984 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1985 objects are usually permanent.
1987 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1988 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1990 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1992 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1993 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1996 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2000 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2005 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2007 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2008 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2009 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2010 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2012 ** New function `make-object-property'
2014 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2015 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2019 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2020 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2024 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2025 source properties eventually.
2027 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2029 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2030 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2031 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2033 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2034 will be removed in the next release.
2036 ** New define-module option: pure
2038 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2043 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2046 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2048 Export names NAME1 ...
2050 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2051 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2055 (define-module (foo)
2057 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2060 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2065 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2067 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2069 ** New function: port? X
2071 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2072 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2074 ** New function: file-port?
2076 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2078 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2080 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2081 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2082 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2083 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2084 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2086 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2088 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2089 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2090 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2091 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2092 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2095 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2097 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2098 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2099 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2100 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2103 ** New function: crypt password salt
2105 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2108 ** New function: chroot path
2110 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2112 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2114 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2117 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2119 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2121 ** New function: getpass prompt
2123 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2126 ** New function: flock file operation
2128 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2130 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2132 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2135 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2137 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2138 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2139 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2140 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2141 of the temporary file.
2143 ** New function: open-input-string string
2145 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2146 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2147 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2149 ** New function: open-output-string
2151 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2152 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2154 ** New function: get-output-string
2156 Return the contents of an output string port.
2158 ** New function: identity
2160 Return the argument.
2162 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2163 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2165 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2167 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2168 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2169 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2172 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2173 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2175 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2177 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2178 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2179 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2182 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2183 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2184 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2188 Use `identity' instead.
2194 ** Deprecated: return-it
2198 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2200 Use `string-length' instead.
2202 ** Deprecated: flags
2204 Use `logior' instead.
2206 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2208 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2209 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2210 port-for-each is more flexible.
2212 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2213 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2214 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2216 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2218 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2220 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2222 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2224 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2226 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2227 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2229 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2230 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2232 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2233 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2235 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2237 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2238 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2240 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2241 Use module system operations for all variables.
2243 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2245 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2248 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2250 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2251 The following bugs have been fixed:
2253 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2254 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2257 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2258 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2259 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2261 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2262 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2264 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2265 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2268 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2269 The expansion used to be like so:
2271 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2273 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2275 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2277 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2278 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2280 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2282 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2283 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2284 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2288 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2289 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2291 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2296 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2297 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2299 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2300 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2301 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2303 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2306 * Changes to the C interface
2308 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2310 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2311 with "_t". What a concept.
2313 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2315 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2317 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2321 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2322 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2324 *** C Functions removed
2326 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2327 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2328 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2329 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2330 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2331 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2332 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2334 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2336 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2338 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2340 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2342 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2343 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2345 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2347 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2350 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2352 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2354 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2356 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2357 Evaluation" in the manual.
2359 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2361 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2362 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2364 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2366 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2367 Constructors" in the manual.
2369 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2371 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2372 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2374 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2376 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2378 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2379 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2380 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2382 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2384 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2386 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2387 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2388 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2391 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2393 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2395 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2396 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2398 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2400 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2401 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2402 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2403 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2405 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2406 scm_primitive_property_ref
2407 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2408 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2410 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2411 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2413 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2415 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2416 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2417 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2418 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2420 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2422 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2423 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2424 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2425 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2426 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2427 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2428 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2430 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2431 scm_remember_upto_here
2433 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2435 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2437 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2438 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2440 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2442 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2444 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2446 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2448 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2450 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2451 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2452 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2453 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2454 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2455 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2457 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2459 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2461 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2462 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2463 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2465 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2467 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2468 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2469 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2471 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2473 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2474 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2477 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2480 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2481 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2484 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2486 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2488 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2490 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2492 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2494 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2496 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2497 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2498 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2499 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2500 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2501 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2502 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2503 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2504 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2505 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2506 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2507 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2508 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2509 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2510 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2512 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2513 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2514 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2515 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2516 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2517 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2518 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2519 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2520 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2521 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2522 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2523 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2524 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2525 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2526 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2527 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2528 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2529 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2530 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2531 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2532 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2533 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2534 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2535 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2536 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2537 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2538 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2539 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2540 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2542 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2544 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2546 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2547 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2549 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2551 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2553 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2555 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2557 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2559 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2561 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2563 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2565 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2568 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2569 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2571 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2573 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2575 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2577 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2579 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2581 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2583 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2585 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2588 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2590 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2592 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2594 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2595 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2597 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2598 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2600 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2602 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2603 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2604 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2606 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2608 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2610 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2611 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2613 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2614 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2615 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2616 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2618 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2619 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2620 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2622 Use the new ones from above instead.
2624 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2626 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2627 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2628 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2630 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2631 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2633 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2634 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2637 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2638 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2640 Use the new functions instead.
2642 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2645 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2647 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2649 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2652 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2654 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2657 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2659 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2662 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2663 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2664 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2666 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2668 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2669 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2671 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2672 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2673 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2674 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2677 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2679 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2680 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2681 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2682 inexact for an exact.
2684 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2685 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2686 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2689 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2690 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2691 accept an inexact argument.
2693 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2694 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2696 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2699 ** New number validation macros:
2700 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2704 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2706 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2707 scm_unprotect_object.
2709 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2711 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2713 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2716 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2718 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2722 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2724 * Changes to the distribution
2726 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2728 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2729 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2730 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2731 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2732 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2733 obtain these programs.
2734 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2735 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2737 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2738 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2739 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2740 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2741 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2743 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2744 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2745 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2746 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2750 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2753 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2754 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2755 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2756 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2758 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2760 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2762 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2763 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2765 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2766 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2768 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2769 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2771 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2772 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2773 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2774 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2776 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2778 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2782 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2783 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2785 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2787 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2788 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2790 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2791 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2792 number of objects of that kind.
2794 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2796 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2797 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2798 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2799 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2800 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2802 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2804 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2806 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2808 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2811 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2813 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2815 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2817 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2819 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2821 ** New command line option --debug
2823 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2825 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2827 ** New help facility
2829 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2830 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2831 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2832 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2833 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2834 (help) gives this text
2836 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2837 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2839 Examples: (help help)
2841 (help "output-string")
2843 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2845 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2847 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2848 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2851 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2852 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2853 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2856 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2857 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2858 use absolute filenames when possible.
2860 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2861 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2862 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2865 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2867 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2868 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2869 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2870 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2872 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2874 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2876 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2877 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2878 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2880 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2881 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2882 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2884 (read-enable 'positions)
2885 (debug-enable 'debug)
2887 ** Backtraces in scripts
2889 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2893 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2895 at the top of the script.
2897 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2898 The second enables backtraces.)
2900 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2902 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2903 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2904 substantially faster than before.
2906 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2907 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2909 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2910 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2912 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2914 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2915 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2916 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2918 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2919 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2920 when this hook is run in the future.
2922 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2923 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2925 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2927 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2928 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2931 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2932 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2933 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2935 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2936 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2938 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2939 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2941 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2942 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2943 in order not to need further allocation.)
2945 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2948 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2949 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2950 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2951 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2953 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2955 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2958 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2960 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2963 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2964 GC in percent of total heap size
2967 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2968 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2970 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2972 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2973 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2975 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2977 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2978 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2980 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2982 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2983 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2987 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2988 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2990 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2992 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2994 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2996 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2998 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3000 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3001 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3003 (simple-format port message . args)
3004 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3005 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3006 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3007 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3008 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3009 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3010 Does not add a trailing newline."
3012 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3014 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3015 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3017 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3018 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3020 ** Deprecated: list*
3022 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3024 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3026 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3027 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3029 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3030 is returned as result.
3032 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3034 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3036 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3038 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3039 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3042 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3044 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3046 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3047 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3049 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3051 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3053 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3055 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3057 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3059 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3061 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3063 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3064 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3065 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3067 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3070 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3072 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3073 the readability of argument checking.
3075 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3077 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3079 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3081 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3082 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3083 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3084 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3085 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3086 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3087 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3089 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3091 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3093 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3094 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3096 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3098 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3099 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3102 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3104 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3105 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3106 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3108 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3109 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3110 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3112 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3113 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3114 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3115 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3116 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3117 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3118 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3120 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3121 scm_end_input (object);
3122 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3123 ptob->flush (object);
3125 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3126 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3129 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3131 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3133 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3134 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3135 removed in a future version.
3137 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3139 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3140 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3141 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3142 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3144 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3145 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3147 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3150 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3152 in your configure.in.
3154 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3159 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3165 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3167 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3171 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3172 (define make-message string-append)
3174 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3176 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3180 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3185 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3189 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3191 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3192 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3194 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3196 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3197 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3198 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3199 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3200 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3201 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3203 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3204 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3205 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3207 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3208 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3209 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3212 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3213 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3214 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3215 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3216 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3218 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3219 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3220 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3221 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3222 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3223 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3224 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3226 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3228 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3229 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3230 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3232 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3233 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3234 KEY in the calling thread.
3236 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3237 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3238 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3239 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3240 associated with the key.
3242 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3244 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3245 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3247 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3249 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3250 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3251 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3253 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3255 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3256 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3258 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3260 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3262 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3263 returned is undefined.
3265 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3266 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3267 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3269 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3270 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3271 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3273 ** New C level GC hooks
3275 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3277 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3280 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3281 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3282 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3284 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3285 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3286 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3288 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3289 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3292 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3294 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3295 allocation parameters
3297 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3298 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3299 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3303 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3304 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3305 scm_default_max_segment_size
3307 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3309 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3310 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3312 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3314 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3315 object and count on the object being protected until
3316 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3318 The functions also have better time complexity.
3320 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3321 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3322 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3323 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3324 are no longer needed.
3326 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3328 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3329 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3330 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3331 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3333 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3335 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3337 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3339 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3340 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3341 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3342 until this issue has been settled.
3344 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3346 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3348 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3351 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3353 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3355 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3356 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3357 descriptors were checked.
3359 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3360 atomically written to a pipe.
3362 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3363 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3364 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3365 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3366 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3367 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3368 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3371 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3372 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3373 is changed without calling tzset.
3375 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3377 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3378 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3379 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3381 (define write-network-long
3382 (lambda (value port)
3383 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3384 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3385 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3387 (define read-network-long
3389 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3390 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3391 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3393 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3394 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3396 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3397 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3398 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3399 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3401 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3402 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3403 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3404 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3408 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3410 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3414 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3415 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3416 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3422 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3423 for a description of available commands.
3425 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3426 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3427 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3429 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3431 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3432 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3434 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3436 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3438 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3439 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3440 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3441 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3442 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3443 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3446 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3448 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3449 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3450 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3451 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3453 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3454 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3456 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3458 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3460 ** Readline support has changed again.
3462 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3463 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3464 to activate readline is now
3466 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3469 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3471 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3472 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3473 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3476 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3477 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3478 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3481 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3482 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3483 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3484 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3485 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3486 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3488 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3489 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3491 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3493 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3494 object it receives is the same string passed to
3495 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3496 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3497 string, not the suffix.
3499 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3500 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3501 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3503 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3505 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3506 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3507 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3508 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3511 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3513 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3515 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3516 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3517 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3518 appear from left to right.
3520 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3523 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3525 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3526 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3528 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3532 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3534 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3536 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3538 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3539 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3540 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3542 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3544 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3546 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3548 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3551 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3553 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3554 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3555 mentioning it here anyway.
3557 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3559 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3560 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3561 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3562 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3565 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3567 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3569 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3571 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3572 otherwise return #f.
3574 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3576 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3577 returned by `opendir'.
3579 ** New function: using-readline?
3581 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3583 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3585 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3586 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3588 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3590 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3592 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3593 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3594 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3596 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3598 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3599 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3601 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3603 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3604 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3605 documentation slots are not yet used.
3607 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3609 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3610 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3611 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3616 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3617 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3618 (string-append x y))
3620 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3621 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3623 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3624 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3625 be made in a clean way.]
3627 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3629 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3631 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3633 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3634 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3636 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3638 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3640 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3642 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3644 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3645 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3646 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3647 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3650 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3652 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3654 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3656 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3658 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3659 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3661 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3663 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3665 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3667 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3669 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3670 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3671 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3672 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3673 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3674 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3676 This should not make any difference for most users.
3678 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3680 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3681 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3683 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3685 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3686 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3687 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3688 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3689 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3691 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3693 It is now replaced by:
3695 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3697 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3698 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3700 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3702 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3703 This might change when we get the new module system.
3705 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3709 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3711 * Changes to mailing lists
3713 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3715 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3718 * Changes to the distribution
3720 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3722 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3723 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3724 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3725 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3726 you explicitly specify it.
3728 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3729 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3730 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3731 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3732 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3735 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3736 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3737 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3738 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3740 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3741 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3742 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3745 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3747 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3750 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3752 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3754 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3755 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3756 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3757 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3759 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3760 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3763 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3765 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3766 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3767 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3768 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3769 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3770 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3771 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3772 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3784 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3785 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3786 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3787 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3788 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3793 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3794 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3802 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3807 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3808 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3811 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3812 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3813 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3814 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3816 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3818 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3820 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3821 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3823 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3825 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3827 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3828 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3830 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3833 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3835 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3837 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3839 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3841 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3843 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3845 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3846 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3847 when the hook was created.
3849 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3850 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3851 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3852 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3853 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3854 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3855 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3856 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3857 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3859 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3860 the dlopen family of functions.
3862 ** New function `provided?'
3864 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3865 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3866 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3867 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3869 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3871 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3872 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3873 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3874 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3877 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3878 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3879 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3880 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3882 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3883 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3884 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3887 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3888 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3889 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3890 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3891 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3892 but with the flag set.
3894 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3896 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3897 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3899 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3900 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3901 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3902 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3903 available Scheme format implementations.
3905 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3906 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3907 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3908 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3909 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3910 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3911 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3912 output is to the current error port if available by the
3913 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3916 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3917 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3918 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3919 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3920 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3921 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3922 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3923 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3925 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3926 be executed at a time.
3929 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3931 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3932 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3933 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3935 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3936 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3937 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3938 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3939 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3940 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3941 general form of a directive is:
3943 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3945 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3947 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3949 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3950 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3951 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3954 Any (print as `display' does).
3958 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3962 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3966 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3972 print number sign always.
3975 print comma separated.
3977 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3983 print number sign always.
3986 print comma separated.
3988 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3994 print number sign always.
3997 print comma separated.
3999 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4005 print number sign always.
4008 print comma separated.
4010 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4015 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4019 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4022 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4025 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4028 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4033 prints `y' and `ies'.
4036 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4039 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4044 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4048 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4051 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4052 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4054 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4057 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4058 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4060 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4063 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4065 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4067 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4070 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4072 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4074 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4077 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4080 The sign appears before the padding.
4088 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4090 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4095 print N page separators.
4105 newline is ignored, white space left.
4108 newline is left, white space ignored.
4113 relative tabulation.
4119 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4121 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4124 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4126 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4129 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4132 converts by `string-upcase'.
4135 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4137 jumps N arguments forward.
4140 jumps 1 argument backward.
4143 jumps N arguments backward.
4146 jumps to the 0th argument.
4149 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4151 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4152 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4154 take argument from N.
4157 true test conditional.
4160 if-else-then conditional.
4166 default clause follows.
4169 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4171 at most N iterations.
4174 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4177 args from the rest of arguments.
4180 args from the rest args (lists).
4191 aborts if N <= M <= K
4193 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4196 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4199 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4205 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4207 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4209 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4210 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4211 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4212 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4213 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4214 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4218 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4222 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4228 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4231 Print a `#\space' character
4233 print N `#\space' characters.
4236 Print a `#\tab' character
4238 print N `#\tab' characters.
4241 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4242 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4243 must be a positive decimal number.
4246 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4247 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4248 be processed by `read'.
4251 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4252 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4253 be processed by `read'.
4256 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4259 prints format version.
4262 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4263 and format it accordingly.
4265 *** Configuration Variables
4267 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4268 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4269 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4270 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4273 format:symbol-case-conv
4274 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4275 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4276 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4277 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4278 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4280 format:iobj-case-conv
4281 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4282 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4285 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4288 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4294 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4295 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4296 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4297 `format' padding style.
4300 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4301 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4302 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4303 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4307 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4308 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4309 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4312 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4313 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4314 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4315 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4316 parameters or modifiers)).
4319 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4321 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4323 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4324 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4326 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4327 string-downcase! functions.
4329 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4330 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4332 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4335 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4338 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4339 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4341 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4343 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4344 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4346 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4347 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4348 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4349 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4350 would if STRING were input.
4352 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4354 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4355 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4356 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4357 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4360 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4362 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4363 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4366 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4368 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4369 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4371 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4372 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4374 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4375 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4376 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4377 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4379 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4380 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4382 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4383 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4384 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4386 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4387 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4389 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4390 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4391 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4392 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4393 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4395 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4396 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4397 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4398 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4399 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4400 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4402 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4403 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4404 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4407 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4408 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4409 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4410 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4411 the following grammar:
4412 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4413 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4414 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4415 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4416 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4417 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4418 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4419 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4420 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4421 last option in its combination)
4423 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4424 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4425 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4426 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4428 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4429 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4430 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4432 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4433 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4434 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4436 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4437 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4438 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4439 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4440 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4441 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4442 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4443 ordinary argument strings.
4445 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4446 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4447 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4448 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4450 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4451 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4453 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4454 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4455 - a required option is omitted
4456 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4457 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4458 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4459 - an option predicate fails
4464 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4467 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4468 (verbose (required? #f)
4471 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4472 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4473 (predicate ,string?))))
4475 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4476 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4478 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4479 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4480 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4481 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4484 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4486 It will be removed in a few releases.
4488 ** New syntax: lambda*
4489 ** New syntax: define*
4490 ** New syntax: define*-public
4491 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4492 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4493 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4495 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4496 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4497 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4498 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4499 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4501 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4502 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4503 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4505 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4507 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4508 and examples for `lambda*':
4511 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4513 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4514 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4515 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4516 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4517 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4518 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4519 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4520 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4522 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4524 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4525 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4526 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4527 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4529 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4530 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4531 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4532 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4533 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4534 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4535 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4536 and until the procedure is called.
4538 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4540 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4541 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4542 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4543 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4544 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4545 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4546 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4547 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4548 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4549 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4551 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4552 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4553 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4554 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4557 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4559 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4560 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4561 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4562 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4564 ** New syntax: and-let*
4565 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4567 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4568 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4569 (<variable> <expression>)
4572 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4573 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4574 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4577 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4578 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4579 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4580 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4581 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4582 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4583 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4585 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4586 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4587 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4588 shadow earlier bindings.
4590 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4592 ** New sorting functions
4594 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4595 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4596 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4597 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4599 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4600 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4603 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4604 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4605 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4607 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4608 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4609 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4610 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4612 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4613 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4614 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4615 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4616 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4619 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4620 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4621 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4622 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4623 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4624 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4626 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4627 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4628 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4630 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4631 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4632 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4635 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4636 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4637 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4639 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4640 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4642 ** New built-in random number support
4644 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4645 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4646 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4647 returned have a uniform distribution.
4649 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4650 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4651 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4652 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4653 effect of the `random' operation.
4655 *** New variable: *random-state*
4656 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4657 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4658 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4659 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4660 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4663 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4664 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4665 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4666 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4667 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4669 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4670 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4671 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4672 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4673 initialized using SEED.
4675 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4676 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4677 range between 0 and 1.
4679 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4680 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4681 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4682 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4683 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4684 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4685 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4687 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4688 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4689 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4690 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4691 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4692 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4694 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4695 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4696 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4697 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4699 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4700 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4701 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4702 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4704 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4705 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4706 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4708 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4710 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4713 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4714 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4717 ** New function: make-guardian
4718 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4719 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4720 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4721 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4722 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4724 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4725 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4726 one object if at all.
4728 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4729 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4730 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4732 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4733 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4734 read again in last-in first-out order.
4736 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4737 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4739 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4741 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4742 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4743 file position is used.
4745 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4746 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4747 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4749 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4750 redefined using seek.
4752 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4753 size is not supplied.
4755 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4756 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4758 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4759 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4761 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4763 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4764 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4765 and returns the contents as a single string.
4767 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4768 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4769 lists in serial order.
4771 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4772 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4773 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4775 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4776 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4777 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4778 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4780 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4781 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4782 and #f if an error occured.
4784 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4786 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4787 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4788 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4789 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4791 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4793 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4796 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4798 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4801 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4805 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4806 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4808 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4809 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4813 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4815 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4817 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4818 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4820 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4822 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4823 might change when we get the new module system.
4825 ** The smob interface
4827 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4828 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4830 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4832 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4836 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4837 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4838 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4839 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4840 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4841 will be freed by the default free function.
4843 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4844 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4845 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4846 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4848 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4849 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4850 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4851 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4853 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4855 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4856 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4860 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4861 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4862 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4864 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4865 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4866 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4867 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4869 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4870 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4871 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4873 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4874 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4875 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4876 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4878 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4879 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4880 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4882 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4886 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4888 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4889 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4890 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4892 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4893 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4894 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4896 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4897 a string port's buffer.
4899 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4900 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4901 function pointers which together define the current random number
4902 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4903 number library functions.
4905 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4908 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4909 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4912 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4913 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4915 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4916 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4918 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4919 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4922 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4923 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4924 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4925 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4927 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4928 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4929 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4930 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4931 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4932 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4933 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4935 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4936 by libguile and the application.
4938 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4939 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4940 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4941 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4943 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4944 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4946 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4947 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4948 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4950 ** Random number library functions
4951 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4952 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4953 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4955 The default random state is stored in:
4957 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4958 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4959 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4964 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4966 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4967 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4968 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4969 isn't a random state.
4971 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4972 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4974 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4975 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4976 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4977 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4979 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4980 Return 32 random bits.
4982 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4983 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4985 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4986 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4988 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4989 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4991 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4992 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4994 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4995 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4996 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5000 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5002 * Changes to the distribution
5004 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5005 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5006 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5009 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5010 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5011 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5013 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5014 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5015 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5016 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5019 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5020 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5021 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5023 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5025 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5027 *** Function: batch-mode?
5029 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5032 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5034 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5035 case has not been implemented.
5037 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5038 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5039 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5042 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5043 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5045 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5047 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5049 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5051 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5052 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5055 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5056 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5057 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5058 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5061 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5063 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5064 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5065 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5066 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5067 find those libraries.
5069 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5070 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5073 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5075 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5076 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5077 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5078 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5080 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5081 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5082 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5086 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5088 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5089 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5090 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5093 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5094 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5095 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5096 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5098 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5099 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5102 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5103 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5104 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5105 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5106 compiler where to find the libraries.
5108 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5109 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5110 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5112 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5113 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5114 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5115 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5116 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5120 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5122 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5123 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5124 internationalization support.
5126 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5127 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5128 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5129 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5130 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5132 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5133 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5134 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5135 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5136 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5138 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5139 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5140 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5141 any GNU mirror site.
5143 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5145 ** New function: add-history STRING
5146 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5147 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5148 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5150 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5152 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5153 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5154 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5157 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5158 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5159 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5161 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5163 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5166 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5167 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5170 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5171 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5172 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5173 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5174 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5175 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5177 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5178 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5179 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5180 of the form mentioned above.
5182 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5183 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5184 returned in the special `rest' list.
5186 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5187 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5189 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5191 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5193 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5195 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5196 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5197 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5198 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5199 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5200 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5201 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5202 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5205 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5207 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5209 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5210 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5213 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5214 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5215 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5219 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5220 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5221 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5222 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5223 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5224 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5225 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5226 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5229 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5231 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5232 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5233 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5235 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5237 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5238 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5240 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5241 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5242 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5244 Why do we have this function?
5245 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5246 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5247 primitive, and display it differently, and
5248 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5249 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5252 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5253 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5256 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5257 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5258 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5259 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5261 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5262 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5265 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5266 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5268 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5270 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5271 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5272 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5273 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5274 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5275 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5276 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5279 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5281 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5282 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5284 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5285 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5286 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5287 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5288 properly continue the print chain.
5290 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5291 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5292 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5293 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5294 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5295 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5296 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5297 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5299 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5300 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5301 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5302 safest to not check for these pairs.
5304 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5305 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5306 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5307 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5309 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5311 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5312 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5314 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5316 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5318 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5319 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5320 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5322 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5323 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5324 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5326 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5327 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5328 the following functions and macros:
5330 Function: make-fluid
5332 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5333 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5334 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5335 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5336 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5338 Function: fluid? OBJ
5340 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5342 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5343 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5345 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5346 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5348 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5350 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5351 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5352 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5353 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5354 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5355 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5356 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5358 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5360 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5361 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5362 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5363 should evaluate to a fluid.
5365 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5367 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5368 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5369 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5370 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5371 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5373 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5376 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5378 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5380 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5382 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5385 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5386 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5387 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5388 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5389 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5392 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5393 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5394 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5396 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5397 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5398 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5400 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5401 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5402 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5403 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5405 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5406 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5407 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5408 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5410 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5411 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5412 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5413 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5415 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5416 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5417 their revealed counts set to zero.
5419 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5420 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5422 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5423 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5425 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5426 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5428 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5429 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5430 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5432 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5433 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5434 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5436 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5437 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5438 default environment inherited by child processes.
5440 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5441 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5442 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5444 The return value is unspecified.
5446 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5447 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5448 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5449 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5450 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5452 The return value is unspecified.
5454 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5455 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5463 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5464 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5467 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5470 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5471 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5472 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5474 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5475 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5476 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5477 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5480 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5481 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5483 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5484 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5485 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5486 the `environ' procedure.
5488 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5489 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5492 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5493 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5495 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5496 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5497 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5498 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5500 *** procedure: times
5501 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5502 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5503 return a selected component:
5506 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5510 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5513 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5517 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5518 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5522 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5523 terminated child processes.
5525 ** Removed: list-length
5526 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5527 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5529 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5531 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5533 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5535 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5536 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5537 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5538 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5540 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5541 extra complexity it introduces.
5543 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5544 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5546 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5547 variable to any non-empty value.
5549 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5550 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5552 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5554 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5555 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5557 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5559 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5560 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5562 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5564 ** vector handling routines
5566 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5567 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5568 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5569 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5570 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5572 ** pair and list routines
5574 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5577 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5579 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5582 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5584 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5586 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5587 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5588 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5589 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5590 site-specific initialization code.
5592 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5593 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5594 initialization processes.
5596 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5597 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5598 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5599 initialized properly.
5601 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5602 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5603 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5605 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5606 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5607 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5608 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5609 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5611 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5613 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5614 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5615 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5616 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5617 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5619 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5620 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5621 which look like this:
5624 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5626 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5627 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5630 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5631 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5634 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5636 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5637 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5638 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5640 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5641 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5642 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5643 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5644 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5646 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5647 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5649 int (*free) (SCM port);
5650 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5651 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5652 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5656 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5657 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5658 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5660 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5663 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5664 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5665 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5667 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5668 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5669 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5672 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5676 struct timeval *timeout);
5678 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5679 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5680 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5681 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5682 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5683 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5685 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5686 scm_catch_body_t body,
5688 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5691 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5692 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5693 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5694 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5695 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5696 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5698 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5700 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5703 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5704 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5705 spawning threads from application C code.
5707 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5708 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5709 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5710 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5711 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5712 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5714 ** Removed functions:
5716 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5717 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5719 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5721 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5722 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5724 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5726 ** mbstrings are now removed
5728 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5729 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5731 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5733 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5734 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5735 their new names and arguments:
5737 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5738 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5739 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5740 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5743 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5745 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5747 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5750 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5752 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5753 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5754 pass a #f arg to catch.
5756 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5758 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5759 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5762 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5763 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5764 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5765 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5766 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5767 reclaim its storage.
5769 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5770 worrying that some other function you call will call
5771 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5772 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5773 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5774 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5777 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5779 * Changes to the distribution
5781 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5782 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5785 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5786 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5788 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5789 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5791 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5793 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5794 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5795 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5797 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5799 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5800 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5801 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5802 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5803 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5804 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5806 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5807 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5808 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5811 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5812 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5813 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5814 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5816 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5817 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5818 libraries to your link command:
5820 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5821 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5822 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5823 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5825 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5826 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5827 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5829 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5831 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5832 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5835 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5837 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5838 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5839 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5840 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5841 searched is system dependent.
5843 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5845 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5847 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5849 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5850 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5852 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5854 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5855 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5856 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5857 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5858 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5861 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5863 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5864 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5865 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5866 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5867 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5869 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5871 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5872 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5874 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5876 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5877 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5878 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5881 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5883 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5884 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5885 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5886 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5888 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5889 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5891 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5893 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5894 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5896 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5898 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5899 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5907 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5909 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5910 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5911 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5912 a more informative way.
5914 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5915 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5916 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5917 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5918 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5919 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5921 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5922 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5925 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5926 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5927 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5930 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5931 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5932 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5933 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5934 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5935 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5937 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5938 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5939 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5940 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5943 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5944 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5945 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5946 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5947 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5948 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5950 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5951 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5952 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5953 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5954 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5956 *** regexp functions
5958 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5959 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5960 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5962 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5963 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5964 with SCSH regular expressions.
5966 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5967 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5968 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5969 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5971 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5972 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5973 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5974 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5976 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5977 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5978 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5979 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5980 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5981 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5983 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5984 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5985 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5986 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5987 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5989 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5991 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5992 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5993 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5994 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5996 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5997 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5998 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6000 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6001 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6003 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6006 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6007 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6008 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6010 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6011 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6012 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6014 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6015 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6016 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6017 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6018 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6021 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6023 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6024 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6025 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6026 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6027 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6028 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6030 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6031 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6032 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6034 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6035 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6038 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6039 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6041 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6042 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6043 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6044 may be one of the following arguments:
6046 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6048 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6050 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6051 the regexp match is written.
6053 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6054 following the regexp match is written.
6056 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6057 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6060 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6061 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6062 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6063 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6064 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6065 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6067 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6070 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6071 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6072 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6073 written out to PORT.
6075 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6076 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6077 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6078 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6079 will return after processing a single match.
6081 *** Match Structures
6083 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6084 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6085 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6086 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6087 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6088 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6091 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6092 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6093 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6094 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6095 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6097 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6098 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6099 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6101 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6102 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6103 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6104 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6105 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6107 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6108 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6110 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6111 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6113 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6114 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6116 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6117 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6119 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6120 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6121 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6122 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6124 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6125 Return the original TARGET string.
6127 *** Backslash Escapes
6129 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6130 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6131 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6132 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6133 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6134 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6136 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6137 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6138 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6139 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6140 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6141 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6142 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6143 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6145 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6146 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6147 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6148 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6149 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6150 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6151 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6153 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6154 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6155 return the resulting string.
6157 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6158 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6159 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6160 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6161 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6162 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6163 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6164 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6165 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6166 translated to the single character `*'.
6168 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6169 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6170 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6171 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6172 consecutive backslashes:
6174 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6176 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6177 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6178 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6180 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6181 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6182 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6183 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6184 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6185 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6187 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6189 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6190 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6191 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6192 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6193 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6194 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6195 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6196 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6197 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6198 cumbersome escape syntax.
6200 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6202 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6204 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6206 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6209 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6211 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6213 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6216 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6217 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6218 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6219 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6220 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6222 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6223 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6224 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6225 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6226 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6227 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6228 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6231 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6232 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6233 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6236 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6237 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6239 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6240 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6241 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6242 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6243 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6244 installed, you can say:
6246 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6249 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6251 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6252 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6253 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6254 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6255 new dynamic roots and threads.
6258 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6260 * Changes to the distribution.
6262 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6264 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6265 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6266 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6267 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6268 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6269 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6270 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6271 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6273 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6276 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6277 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6282 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6284 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6285 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6287 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6288 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6289 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6290 the (command-line) function.
6291 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6292 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6293 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6295 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6296 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6297 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6298 command line arguments
6299 -ds do -s script at this point
6300 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6301 -h, --help display this help and exit
6302 -v, --version display version information and exit
6303 \ read arguments from following script lines
6305 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6306 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6308 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6311 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6315 (main (command-line))
6317 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6319 ekko a speckled gecko
6321 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6322 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6323 following list of command-line arguments:
6325 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6327 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6328 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6329 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6330 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6331 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6333 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6335 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6337 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6338 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6341 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6342 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6343 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6344 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6346 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6347 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6348 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6349 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6351 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6355 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6359 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6361 ekko a speckled gecko
6363 Unix expands this into
6365 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6367 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6368 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6370 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6372 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6373 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6375 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6376 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6377 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6378 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6379 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6380 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6381 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6382 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6383 it only terminates the argument list.)
6384 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6385 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6386 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6387 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6388 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6389 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6390 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6391 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6393 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6395 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6396 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6397 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6398 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6399 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6401 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6402 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6403 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6405 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6407 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6408 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6409 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6410 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6413 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6414 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6415 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6417 * Changes to Scheme functions
6419 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6420 and disabled by default.
6422 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6423 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6424 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6425 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6427 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6429 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6431 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6432 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6434 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6435 (read-set! keywords #f)
6437 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6438 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6439 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6442 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6443 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6444 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6447 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6448 support for Scheme functions.
6450 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6451 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6452 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6453 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6456 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6457 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6458 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6461 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6462 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6463 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6466 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6467 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6468 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6469 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6470 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6471 display the result as a prompt.
6472 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6474 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6475 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6476 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6479 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6480 procedure of zero arguments.
6482 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6483 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6484 argument is bound in the current module.
6486 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6487 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6488 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6489 public bindings into the current module.
6491 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6492 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6494 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6495 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6497 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6498 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6500 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6501 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6503 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6504 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6506 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6507 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6508 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6509 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6510 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6512 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6513 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6514 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6515 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6517 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6520 ** Changes to I/O functions
6522 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6523 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6524 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6526 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6527 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6528 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6530 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6531 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6533 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6534 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6535 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6536 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6538 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6540 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6541 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6543 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6544 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6545 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6546 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6547 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6550 'trim omit delimiter from result
6551 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6552 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6553 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6555 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6557 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6558 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6560 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6561 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6562 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6563 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6564 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6566 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6567 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6568 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6570 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6571 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6572 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6573 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6575 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6576 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6578 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6579 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6581 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6583 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6584 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6585 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6586 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6587 a delimiting character.
6588 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6590 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6591 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6592 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6593 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6594 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6595 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6597 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6598 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6600 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6601 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6602 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6604 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6605 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6606 the array to read and write.
6608 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6609 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6612 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6614 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6617 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6618 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6619 Values for COMMAND are:
6621 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6622 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6623 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6624 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6625 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6626 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6627 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6628 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6630 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6632 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6633 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6634 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6635 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6636 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6637 corresponding return set will be the same.
6639 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6642 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6643 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6644 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6645 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6646 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6647 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6648 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6649 special file being created.
6651 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6652 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6654 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6655 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6656 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6657 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6658 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6659 and originating address.
6661 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6662 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6663 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6665 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6668 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6669 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6672 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6673 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6674 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6675 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6676 this function returns #f.
6678 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6679 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6680 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6683 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6684 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6685 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6688 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6689 a valid STATUS value.
6691 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6693 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6694 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6696 Component Accessor Setter
6697 ========================= ============ ============
6698 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6699 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6700 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6701 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6702 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6703 year tm:year set-tm:year
6704 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6705 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6706 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6707 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6708 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6710 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6711 describing the host system:
6714 ============================================== ================
6715 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6716 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6717 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6718 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6719 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6721 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6722 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6723 system's user database:
6726 ====================== =================
6727 user name passwd:name
6728 user password passwd:passwd
6731 real name passwd:gecos
6732 home directory passwd:dir
6733 shell program passwd:shell
6735 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6736 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6737 system's group database:
6740 ======================= ============
6741 group name group:name
6742 group password group:passwd
6744 group members group:mem
6746 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6747 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6751 ========================= ===============
6752 official name of host hostent:name
6753 alias list hostent:aliases
6754 host address type hostent:addrtype
6755 length of address hostent:length
6756 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6758 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6759 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6763 ========================= ===============
6764 official name of net netent:name
6765 alias list netent:aliases
6766 net number type netent:addrtype
6767 net number netent:net
6769 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6770 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6774 ========================= ===============
6775 official protocol name protoent:name
6776 alias list protoent:aliases
6777 protocol number protoent:proto
6779 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6780 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6784 ========================= ===============
6785 official service name servent:name
6786 alias list servent:aliases
6787 port number servent:port
6788 protocol to use servent:proto
6790 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6791 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6794 ======================================== ===============
6795 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6796 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6797 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6798 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6800 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6801 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6802 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6804 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6805 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6807 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6808 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6810 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6811 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6813 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6815 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6817 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6818 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6819 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6821 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6822 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6823 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6824 return the remaining characters as a string.
6826 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6827 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6828 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6830 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6832 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6834 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6837 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6840 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6841 and returns the array
6843 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6844 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6845 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6847 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6849 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6850 symbol's value from C code:
6852 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6853 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6854 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6855 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6857 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6858 without assigning them a value.
6860 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6861 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6862 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6864 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6865 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6866 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6868 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6869 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6871 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6872 doesn't actually care about that.
6874 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6875 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6876 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6878 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6879 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6880 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6881 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6882 which we have just created and initialized.
6884 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6885 should one occur. We call it like this:
6886 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6888 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6889 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6890 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6891 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6892 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6893 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6896 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6897 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6898 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6899 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6900 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6901 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6902 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6905 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6906 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6907 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6908 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6909 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6912 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6913 scm_internal_catch, except:
6915 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6916 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6917 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6918 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6921 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6922 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6923 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6925 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6926 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6927 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6928 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6931 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6932 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6933 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6935 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6936 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6937 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6938 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6939 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6941 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6942 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6943 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6945 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6946 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6947 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6949 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6950 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6952 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6953 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6954 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6957 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6958 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6959 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6960 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6961 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6962 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6963 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6966 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6967 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6969 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6970 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6971 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6972 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6973 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6976 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6977 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6979 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6980 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6983 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6984 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6986 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6989 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6990 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6991 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6992 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6993 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6994 given the following arguments:
6996 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6998 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7000 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7002 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7005 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7006 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7007 command-line arguments.
7009 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7010 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7011 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7012 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7013 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7014 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7017 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7020 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7021 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7023 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7024 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7026 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7027 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7028 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7029 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7031 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7032 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7034 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7035 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7036 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7037 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7039 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7040 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7042 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7043 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7045 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7047 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7048 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7049 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7052 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7053 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7055 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7056 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7061 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7064 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7066 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7067 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7068 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7069 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7071 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7073 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7075 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7076 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7077 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7078 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7079 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7080 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7081 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7082 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7083 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7084 for more information.
7086 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7087 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7089 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7090 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7091 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7092 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7093 following two lines at the top of the file:
7095 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7098 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7099 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7100 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7102 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7104 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7106 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7109 (display (car args))
7110 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7112 (loop (cdr args)))))
7115 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7116 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7117 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7118 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7119 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7120 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7124 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7127 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7130 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7132 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7133 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7134 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7135 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7136 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7139 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7140 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7141 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7142 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7143 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7146 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7149 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7150 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7151 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7154 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7155 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7156 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7158 to see a backtrace, and
7159 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7160 to see them by default.
7164 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7166 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7168 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7169 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7172 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7173 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7174 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7175 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7178 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7179 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7180 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7181 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7182 functions which inspired them.
7184 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7185 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7189 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7191 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7193 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7194 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7197 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7198 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7199 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7201 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7202 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7203 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7204 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7205 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7207 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7209 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7210 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7211 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7214 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7217 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7219 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7220 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7221 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7222 above should serve their purposes.
7224 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7225 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7226 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7227 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7229 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7232 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7233 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7234 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7235 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7237 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7238 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7239 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7240 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7242 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7243 for the `read' function.
7246 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7247 to that of `integer?'.
7249 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7250 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7252 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7253 it simply returns the object's property list.
7255 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7256 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7257 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7258 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7260 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7262 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7265 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7267 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7268 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7270 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7272 void (*main_func) (),
7275 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7276 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7277 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7278 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7279 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7281 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7282 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7283 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7284 know which arguments have been processed.
7286 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7287 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7288 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7289 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7290 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7292 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7293 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7294 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7295 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7296 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7297 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7298 people from making that mistake.
7300 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7301 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7303 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7305 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7309 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7312 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7313 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7314 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7315 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7318 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7319 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7320 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7321 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7324 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7325 have been added to the Guile library.
7327 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7328 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7329 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7332 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7333 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7334 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7336 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7337 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7338 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7339 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7340 argument from the list.
7343 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7346 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7347 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7349 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7350 to a Scheme port object.
7352 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7353 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7358 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7360 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7361 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7362 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7363 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7364 code as a special datatype.
7366 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7367 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7368 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7369 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7370 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7373 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7374 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7375 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7376 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7377 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7379 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7382 Copyright information:
7384 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7386 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7387 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7388 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7389 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7391 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7392 of this document, or of portions of it,
7393 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7394 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7399 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"