1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.2 (since the 1.9.1 prerelease):
13 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed.
15 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
16 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
17 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
20 ** EBCDIC support is removed.
22 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
23 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
26 Changes in 1.9.1 (since the 1.9.0 prerelease):
28 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
30 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
31 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
33 ** Automatically compiled files will be placed in ~/.cache, not ~/.guile-ccache.
35 Actually, they will be placed in $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache/1.9,
36 defaulting to XDG_CACHE_HOME=~/.cache. Users may remove their
37 ~/.guile-ccache directories.
39 ** New language: Brainfuck.
41 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
42 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
43 languages. See the manual for details, or
44 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
45 Brainfuck language itself.
47 ** A number of Scheme files were corrected to be LGPLv3+.
49 Some Scheme files imported for the compiler were erroneously labeled as
50 being LGPLv2+ or GPLv2+. This oversight has been fixed.
52 ** Bytevectors may now be accessed with a C-friendly API.
54 New functions: `scm_is_bytevector ()', `scm_c_bytevector_length ()',
55 `scm_c_bytevector_length ()', and `scm_c_bytevector_set_x ()'. See the
58 ** Bytevectors are now accessible using the generalized-vector API.
60 As a side effect, this change allows compilation of literal bytevectors
63 ** Meta-commands to the REPL work better with strange languages.
65 Specifically, meta-commands that take expressions as arguments will use
66 the current language's reader to read those expressions, which may span
67 multiple lines, with readline integration if the user has that enabled.
69 ** The object code file format has changed.
71 The objcode loader will complain about a "bad header cookie" if it
72 happens to find an old file. The workaround for that is currently to
73 find all stale .go files and remove them. This is likely to affect users
74 who have checked out Guile's git repository, not those that build from
77 ** Vector access has been sped up considerably.
79 Guile's virtual machine now has vector and bytevector operations. Using
80 Guile to process large amounts of data is now easier. This is because
81 `vector-ref' and `vector-set!' now have fast opcodes. In addition, there
82 are opcodes for `ref' and `set' operations on bytevectors for everything
83 from 8-bit integers to 64-bit floating-point values.
85 In the next release, we hope to extend this speedup to other kinds of
88 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed.
90 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes.
92 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
94 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
96 * New modules (see the manual for details)
98 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
99 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
100 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
101 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
102 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
104 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
106 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
108 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
109 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
111 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
113 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
114 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
115 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
117 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
118 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
120 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
121 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
122 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
125 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
127 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
128 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
129 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
131 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
133 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
136 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
138 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
140 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
141 not apply to the compiler.
143 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
146 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
147 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
148 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
150 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
151 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
152 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
155 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
156 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
157 will be created if needed.
159 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
160 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
162 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
163 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
165 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
166 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
167 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
169 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
171 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
172 in the next prerelease.
174 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
176 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
179 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
181 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
182 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
183 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
185 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
186 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
187 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
188 procedures' docstrings for more information.
190 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
191 combining arity and formals. For example:
193 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
194 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
196 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
199 ** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
201 These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
202 not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
203 Emacs Lisp support, however.
205 ** New language: ECMAScript
207 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
208 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
209 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
210 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
212 ** New language: Brainfuck
214 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
215 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
216 languages. See the manual for details, or
217 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
218 Brainfuck language itself.
220 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
222 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
223 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
224 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
225 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
227 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
230 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
232 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
233 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
236 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
237 (define (helper x) ...)
239 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
241 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
244 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
245 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
247 ** New function, `procedure-module'
249 While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
250 transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
253 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
255 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
256 missing documentation, however.
258 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
261 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
262 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
264 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
266 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
268 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
270 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
271 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
272 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
273 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
274 in response to user feedback.
276 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
278 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
279 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
282 (define (helper x) ...)
283 (define-macro (foo bar)
286 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
289 (define (helper x) ...)
290 (define-macro (foo bar)
291 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
293 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
297 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
299 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
301 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
308 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
309 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
312 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
314 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
318 (define-macro (ref x) x)
321 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
322 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
323 macros before code that uses them.
325 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
328 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
330 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
331 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
332 (double-literal 2) => 4
334 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
335 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
336 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
338 (eval-when (load compile eval)
339 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
340 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
341 (double-literal 2) => 4
343 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
346 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
348 Need to document this one some more.
350 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
352 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
353 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
356 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
358 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
359 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
360 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
362 ** Incompatible change to #'
364 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
365 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
366 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
367 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
369 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
371 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
374 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
375 works (with compiled procedures)
377 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
378 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
379 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
380 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
382 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
383 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
384 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
385 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
386 number of stack frames.
388 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
389 active in the current continuation
391 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
392 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
393 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
394 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
396 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
397 through to the expanded code
399 This should result in better backtraces.
401 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
403 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
405 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
407 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
408 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
411 ** All modules have names now
413 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
414 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
415 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
416 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
418 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
420 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
421 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
422 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
424 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
425 values to the expected number
427 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
428 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
429 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
431 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
432 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
433 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
434 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
436 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
437 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
438 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
440 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
443 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
445 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
447 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
448 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
449 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
450 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
451 the interpreter would proceed.
453 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
454 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
455 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
456 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
458 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
460 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
461 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
462 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
463 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
464 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
465 you to contact the Guile developers.
467 ** psyntax is now the default expander
469 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
470 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
473 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
474 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
475 code in question was memoized.
477 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
478 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
479 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
480 `x432' instead of `x'.
482 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
483 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
484 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
485 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
487 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
489 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
490 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
491 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
494 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
495 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
496 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
497 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
499 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
500 by nonhygienic macros.
502 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
503 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
506 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
507 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
508 (define-macro (ref x)
515 (define-syntax bind-x
517 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
518 (define-macro (ref x)
522 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
523 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
524 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
525 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
528 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
530 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
531 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
533 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
534 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
537 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
538 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
539 subscription required).
541 ** New macro type: syncase-macro
543 XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
544 make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
545 syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
547 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
549 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
552 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
554 This slightly improves program startup times.
556 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
558 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
560 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
562 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
563 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
564 backtrace. This has been fixed.
566 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
568 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
570 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
572 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
574 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
576 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
578 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
579 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
580 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
582 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
584 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
585 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
587 * Changes to the C interface
589 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
591 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
593 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
596 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
597 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
599 ** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
601 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
603 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
605 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
606 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
608 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
610 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
611 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
613 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
615 * Changes to the distribution
617 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
619 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
620 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
623 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
625 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
626 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
627 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
630 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
632 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
633 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
635 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring.
637 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/. We hope to merge in
638 Unicode support in the next prerelease.
642 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
644 * New modules (see the manual for details)
646 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
650 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
651 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
652 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
653 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
654 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
655 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
656 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
657 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
658 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
659 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
660 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
662 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
664 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
665 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
666 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
669 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
672 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
674 * New features (see the manual for details)
676 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
678 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
680 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
681 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
682 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
684 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
686 * Changes to the distribution
688 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
690 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
691 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
693 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
695 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
696 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
701 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
702 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
703 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
704 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
705 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
706 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
707 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
708 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
709 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
710 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
711 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
712 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
713 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
714 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
716 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
717 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
718 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
719 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
720 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
723 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
725 * Infrastructure changes
727 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
729 The new repository can be accessed using
730 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
731 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
733 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
735 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
737 * New modules (see the manual for details)
741 * New features (see the manual for details)
743 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
744 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
745 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
747 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
748 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
749 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
750 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
752 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
754 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
755 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
756 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
760 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
761 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
763 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
764 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
766 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
767 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
769 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
770 lead to a stack overflow.
772 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
773 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
774 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
775 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
776 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
777 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
778 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
779 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
780 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
781 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
782 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
783 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
784 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
785 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
786 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
787 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
790 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
794 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
795 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
796 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
797 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
798 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
799 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
800 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
801 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
802 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
803 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
804 system and library calls.
805 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
806 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
807 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
808 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
809 uniform vectors on AIX.
810 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
811 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
812 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
813 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
814 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
816 * New modules (see the manual for details)
820 * Documentation fixes and improvements
822 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
824 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
825 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
827 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
829 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
831 * Changes to the distribution
833 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
835 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
836 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
837 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
839 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
841 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
844 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
846 * New modules (see the manual for details)
853 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
854 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
855 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
856 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
857 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
858 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
859 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
861 * Implementation improvements
863 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
864 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
867 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
869 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
871 ** set-program-arguments
874 * Incompatible changes
876 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
878 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
879 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
880 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
881 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
886 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
887 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
888 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
889 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
890 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
891 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
893 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
894 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
895 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
896 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
897 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
898 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
899 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
900 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
901 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
902 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
903 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
904 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
905 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
906 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
907 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
908 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
911 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
913 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
915 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
917 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
918 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
919 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
920 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
921 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
922 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
930 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
932 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
934 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
936 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
938 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
940 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
942 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
943 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
944 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
946 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
948 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
950 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
951 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
953 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
955 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
956 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
958 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
960 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
962 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
964 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
966 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
968 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
970 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
972 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
974 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
976 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
977 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
978 file was on a different device.
981 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
983 * Changes to the distribution
985 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
987 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
989 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
991 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
993 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
995 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
998 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1000 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1001 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1002 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1003 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1004 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1005 items like the versioned share directory name
1006 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1008 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1009 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1010 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1011 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1012 with each micro release during a stable series.
1014 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1016 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1017 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1018 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1019 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1020 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1023 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1024 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1025 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1026 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1029 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1030 in which case "null" threads are used.
1032 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1033 "Blocking", and others.
1035 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1037 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1039 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1040 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1041 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1042 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1043 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1045 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1046 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1048 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1050 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1051 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1053 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1056 This SRFI is always available.
1058 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1060 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1061 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1062 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1063 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1066 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1068 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1069 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1070 parameters without currying.
1072 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1074 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1075 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1077 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1078 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1081 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1082 with a renaming import, for example.
1084 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1086 The official version is good enough now.
1088 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1090 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1091 provided. Use 'make html'.
1093 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1095 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1096 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1097 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1098 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1100 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1102 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1105 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1107 ** New command line option `-L'.
1109 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1111 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1113 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1114 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1116 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1118 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1119 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1121 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1123 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1124 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1127 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1130 (define-module (demo)
1134 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1137 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1139 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1141 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1142 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1143 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1145 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1147 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1148 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1150 ** New function hashx-remove!
1152 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1154 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1155 barriers and dynamic states.
1157 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1158 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1159 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1162 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1163 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1164 Barriers" in the manual.
1166 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1167 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1169 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1171 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1172 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1173 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1174 variable %load-path.
1176 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1178 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1179 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1181 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1182 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1183 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1185 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1186 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1188 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1189 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1190 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1192 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1193 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1194 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1197 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1198 substrings and read-only strings.
1200 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1201 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1204 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1206 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1215 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1216 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1217 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1219 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1220 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1221 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1222 on an ANSI terminal:
1224 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1225 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1228 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1230 See the manual for details.
1232 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1234 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1237 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1239 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1240 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1241 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1242 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1244 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1245 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1246 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1249 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1251 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1252 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1263 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1267 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1272 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1276 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1280 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1283 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1284 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1285 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1286 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1288 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1289 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1292 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1295 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1299 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1301 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1302 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1303 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1306 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1309 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1311 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1314 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1315 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1318 (define-module (foo)
1323 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1324 has been detected is to
1326 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1327 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1328 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1331 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1334 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1336 to your .guile init file.
1338 ** New define-module option: :replace
1340 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1343 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1344 for the core binding `format'.
1346 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1348 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1349 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1351 (define-module (foo)
1352 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1354 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1357 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1359 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1360 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1361 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1363 ** New function: effective-version
1365 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1366 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1367 to the distribution" above.
1369 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
1371 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
1372 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
1374 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
1376 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
1377 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
1379 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
1381 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
1382 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
1385 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
1387 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
1389 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
1391 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
1392 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
1393 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
1396 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
1397 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
1398 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
1399 'system-async-mark'.
1401 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
1402 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
1404 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
1405 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
1406 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
1409 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
1411 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
1412 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
1415 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
1416 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1418 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
1419 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
1420 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
1421 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
1422 level for the current thread.
1424 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
1426 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
1428 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1429 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
1432 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
1434 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
1436 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
1439 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
1441 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
1444 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
1445 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
1446 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
1448 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
1449 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
1450 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
1451 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
1462 ERROR: Numerical overflow
1464 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
1467 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
1469 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
1470 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
1471 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
1482 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
1484 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
1485 them is also done exactly, of course:
1490 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
1491 for exact arguments.
1493 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
1494 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
1496 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
1498 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
1499 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
1500 equal to a floating point number. For example:
1502 (inexact->exact 1.234)
1503 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
1505 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
1507 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
1510 ** New function 'rationalize'.
1512 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
1513 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
1515 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
1518 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
1519 result when both its arguments are exact.
1521 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
1523 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
1524 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
1525 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
1527 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
1529 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
1530 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
1531 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
1533 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
1536 ** pretty-print has more options.
1538 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
1539 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
1540 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
1542 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
1544 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
1545 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
1546 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
1548 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
1550 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
1551 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
1553 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
1555 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
1556 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
1559 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
1561 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
1562 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
1563 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
1564 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
1565 without the soft port blocking.
1567 ** Deprecated: undefine
1569 There is no replacement for undefine.
1571 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
1572 have been discouraged.
1574 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
1575 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
1576 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
1579 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
1581 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
1583 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
1584 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
1585 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
1586 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
1589 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
1590 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
1591 be removed in the next major Guile release.
1593 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
1595 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
1596 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1597 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1598 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1599 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1600 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1602 * Changes to the C interface
1604 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1605 take a 'delete' function argument.
1607 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1608 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1610 This is an incompatible change.
1612 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1614 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1615 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1616 --disable-deprecated.
1618 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1620 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1621 Scheme values has been added.
1623 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1624 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1627 - int scm_is_* (...)
1629 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1630 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1632 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1634 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1635 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1638 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1640 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1641 scm_from_int for ints.
1643 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1644 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1645 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1647 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1649 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1650 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1651 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1654 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1656 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1658 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1660 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1661 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1662 following alternatives.
1664 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1665 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1666 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1667 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1669 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1670 do the validating for you.
1672 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1673 have been discouraged.
1675 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1676 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1679 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1681 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1682 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1685 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1687 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1690 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1693 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1695 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1696 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1698 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1699 scm_truncate_number should have.
1701 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1702 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1704 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1707 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1708 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1709 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1711 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1712 easier to use from C.
1714 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1715 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1717 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1718 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1719 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1722 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1723 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1724 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1725 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1728 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1729 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1730 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1731 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1732 and is thus quite efficient.
1734 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1736 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1737 about the character encoding.
1739 Replace according to the following table:
1741 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1742 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1743 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1744 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1745 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1746 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1747 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1748 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1749 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1751 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1752 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1754 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1756 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1757 now also available to C code.
1759 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1761 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1762 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1763 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1765 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1768 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1770 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1771 unceremoniously removed.
1773 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1774 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1775 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1777 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1778 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1779 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1780 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1781 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1782 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1785 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1787 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1788 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1789 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1790 manual for more details.
1792 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1793 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1795 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1796 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1797 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1799 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1801 Migrate according to the following table:
1803 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1804 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1805 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1806 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1807 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1808 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1809 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1811 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1812 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1813 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1814 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1815 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1816 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1817 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1819 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1821 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1822 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1824 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1825 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1826 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1827 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1829 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1831 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1832 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1833 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1835 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1836 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1838 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1839 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1840 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1841 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1843 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1845 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1846 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1847 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1848 prevent a potential memory leak:
1855 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1857 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1858 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1860 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1861 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1868 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1869 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1873 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1875 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1877 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1878 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1879 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1881 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1882 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1884 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1886 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1888 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1889 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1890 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1892 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1893 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1895 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1896 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1897 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1898 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1901 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1903 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1904 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1905 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1907 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1909 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1910 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1912 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1914 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1915 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1917 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1919 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1920 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1921 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1923 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1925 You should not have used them.
1927 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1929 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1930 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1932 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1934 This macro is not intended for public use.
1936 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1938 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1940 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1942 Use scm_is_real instead.
1944 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1946 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1948 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1950 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1951 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1953 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1954 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1956 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1957 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1959 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1961 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1964 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1966 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1967 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1968 to the distribution" above.
1970 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1972 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1973 arguments are now passed directly:
1975 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1977 This is an incompatible change.
1979 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1981 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1982 function in the init section.
1984 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1986 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1988 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1989 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1990 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1991 stays roughly constant.
1993 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1994 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1995 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1996 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1997 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2000 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2001 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2002 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2003 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2005 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2006 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2007 objects for every type.
2010 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2012 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2014 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2016 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2017 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2018 initializes a new cell (see below).
2020 ** New functions for memory management
2022 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2023 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2024 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2025 cause aborts in long running programs.
2027 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2028 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2030 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2031 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2032 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2033 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2034 details and for upgrading instructions.
2036 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2037 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2038 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2040 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2042 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2043 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2044 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2045 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2046 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2048 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2049 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2050 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2052 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2053 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2055 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2057 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2058 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2059 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2060 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2061 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2063 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2065 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2068 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2070 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2072 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2074 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2075 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2077 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2079 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2080 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2082 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2083 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2085 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2087 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2089 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2090 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2091 blocking it is not well defined.
2093 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2095 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2096 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2097 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2098 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2099 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2100 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2101 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2102 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2103 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2104 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2105 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2106 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2107 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2108 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2109 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2110 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2111 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2112 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2113 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2114 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2115 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2116 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2117 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2118 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2119 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2120 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2121 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2122 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2123 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2124 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2125 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2127 * Changes to bundled modules
2131 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2132 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2133 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2134 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2135 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2138 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2140 * Changes to the distribution
2142 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2144 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2146 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2147 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2148 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2149 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2150 indicate major changes in Guile.
2152 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2153 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2154 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2155 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2157 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2158 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2159 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2160 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2161 micro version number.
2163 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2165 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2167 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2168 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2170 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2172 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2173 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2174 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2176 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2178 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2179 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2180 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2183 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2185 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2188 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2190 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2191 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2193 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2195 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2196 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2199 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2201 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2204 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2207 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2209 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2211 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2212 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2213 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2215 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2217 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2219 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2222 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2224 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2226 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2228 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2229 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2230 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2232 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2234 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2236 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2237 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2246 See README there for more info.
2248 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2249 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2252 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2254 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2256 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2258 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2259 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2260 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2262 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2264 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2265 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2266 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2268 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2269 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2271 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2274 (oop goops describe)
2276 (oop goops active-slot)
2277 (oop goops composite-slot)
2279 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2280 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2281 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2283 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2285 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2286 in the default environment:
2288 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2289 %read-line write-line
2291 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2292 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2294 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2296 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2299 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2300 can be used for similar functionality.
2302 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2304 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2305 it defines two procedures:
2307 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2309 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2310 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2311 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2314 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2316 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2317 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2318 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2319 write large strings.
2321 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2323 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2324 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2326 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2328 for complete documentation.
2330 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2332 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2333 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2334 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2335 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2337 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2338 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2342 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2343 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2344 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2347 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2350 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2351 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2353 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2354 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2357 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2360 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2362 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2364 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2366 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
2368 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
2369 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
2370 Scheme programs easier.
2372 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
2373 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
2374 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
2375 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
2376 `cond-expand' when using this option.
2379 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
2380 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
2382 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
2385 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
2387 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
2388 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
2389 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
2392 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2394 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
2396 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
2397 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
2398 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
2399 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
2400 was also ASCII, for example.
2402 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
2404 tag - no replacement.
2405 fseek - replaced by seek.
2406 list* - replaced by cons*.
2408 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
2412 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
2413 (define m (make-safe-module))
2414 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
2415 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
2416 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
2418 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
2420 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
2421 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
2422 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
2424 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
2426 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
2427 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
2428 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
2429 from the issues related to the module system.
2431 *** New function: load-extension
2433 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
2435 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
2437 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
2438 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
2439 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
2441 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
2443 This function registers a initialization function for use by
2444 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
2445 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
2446 support dynamic linking).
2448 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
2450 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
2451 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
2452 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
2453 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
2456 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
2457 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
2458 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
2459 library and initialize it explicitly.
2461 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
2462 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
2464 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
2466 (define-module (foo bar))
2468 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
2470 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
2472 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
2473 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
2475 (scheme-report-environment 5)
2476 (null-environment 5)
2477 (interaction-environment)
2483 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
2485 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
2486 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
2487 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
2488 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
2490 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
2491 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
2492 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
2493 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
2494 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
2495 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
2496 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
2497 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
2498 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
2499 one eval to the next.
2501 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
2502 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
2503 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
2504 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
2505 subforms are at the top-level as well.
2507 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
2508 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
2509 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
2510 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
2511 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
2512 used in a lexical environment.
2514 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
2515 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
2516 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
2517 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
2518 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
2519 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
2521 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
2523 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
2524 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
2525 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
2526 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
2527 new facilities: selection and renaming.
2529 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
2530 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
2531 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
2533 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
2534 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
2536 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
2537 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
2538 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2540 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2541 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
2543 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
2544 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
2545 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
2546 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
2549 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2550 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
2551 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
2552 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2554 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2555 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2556 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
2558 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2559 ;; and all four by upcasing.
2560 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
2561 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
2562 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
2564 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2566 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2567 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2568 :renamer upcase-symbol))
2570 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
2571 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
2572 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
2574 See manual for more info.
2576 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
2578 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
2579 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
2580 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
2582 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
2584 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
2585 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
2586 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
2588 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
2589 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
2590 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
2591 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
2593 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
2595 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
2596 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2598 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2599 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2600 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2601 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2602 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2605 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2606 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2607 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2608 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2609 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2610 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2612 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2613 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2614 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2615 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2616 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2618 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2619 objects are usually permanent.
2621 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2622 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2624 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2626 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2627 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2630 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2634 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2639 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2641 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2642 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2643 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2644 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2646 ** New function `make-object-property'
2648 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2649 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2653 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2654 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2658 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2659 source properties eventually.
2661 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2663 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2664 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2665 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2667 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2668 will be removed in the next release.
2670 ** New define-module option: pure
2672 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2677 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2680 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2682 Export names NAME1 ...
2684 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2685 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2689 (define-module (foo)
2691 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2694 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2699 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2701 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2703 ** New function: port? X
2705 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2706 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2708 ** New function: file-port?
2710 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2712 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2714 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2715 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2716 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2717 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2718 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2720 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2722 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2723 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2724 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2725 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2726 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2729 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2731 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2732 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2733 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2734 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2737 ** New function: crypt password salt
2739 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2742 ** New function: chroot path
2744 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2746 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2748 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2751 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2753 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2755 ** New function: getpass prompt
2757 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2760 ** New function: flock file operation
2762 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2764 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2766 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2769 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2771 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2772 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2773 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2774 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2775 of the temporary file.
2777 ** New function: open-input-string string
2779 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2780 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2781 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2783 ** New function: open-output-string
2785 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2786 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2788 ** New function: get-output-string
2790 Return the contents of an output string port.
2792 ** New function: identity
2794 Return the argument.
2796 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2797 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2799 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2801 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2802 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2803 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2806 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2807 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2809 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2811 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2812 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2813 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2816 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2817 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2818 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2822 Use `identity' instead.
2828 ** Deprecated: return-it
2832 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2834 Use `string-length' instead.
2836 ** Deprecated: flags
2838 Use `logior' instead.
2840 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2842 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2843 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2844 port-for-each is more flexible.
2846 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2847 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2848 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2850 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2852 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2854 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2856 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2858 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2860 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2861 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2863 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2864 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2866 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2867 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2869 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2871 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2872 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2874 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2875 Use module system operations for all variables.
2877 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2879 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2882 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2884 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2885 The following bugs have been fixed:
2887 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2888 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2891 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2892 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2893 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2895 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2896 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2898 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2899 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2902 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2903 The expansion used to be like so:
2905 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2907 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2909 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2911 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2912 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2914 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2916 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2917 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2918 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2922 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2923 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2925 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2930 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2931 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2933 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2934 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2935 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2937 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2940 * Changes to the C interface
2942 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2944 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2945 with "_t". What a concept.
2947 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2949 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2951 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2955 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2956 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2958 *** C Functions removed
2960 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2961 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2962 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2963 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2964 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2965 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2966 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2968 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2970 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2972 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2974 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2976 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2977 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2979 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2981 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2984 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2986 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2988 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2990 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2991 Evaluation" in the manual.
2993 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2995 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2996 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2998 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3000 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3001 Constructors" in the manual.
3003 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3005 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3006 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3008 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3010 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3012 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3013 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3014 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3016 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3018 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3020 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3021 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3022 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3025 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3027 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3029 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3030 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3032 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3034 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3035 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3036 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3037 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3039 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3040 scm_primitive_property_ref
3041 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3042 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3044 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3045 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3047 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3049 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3050 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3051 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3052 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3054 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3056 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3057 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3058 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3059 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3060 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3061 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3062 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3064 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3065 scm_remember_upto_here
3067 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3069 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3071 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3072 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3074 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3076 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3078 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3080 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3082 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3084 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3085 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3086 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3087 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3088 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3089 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3091 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3093 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3095 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3096 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3097 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3099 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3101 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3102 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3103 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3105 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3107 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3108 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3111 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3114 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3115 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3118 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3120 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3122 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3124 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3126 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3128 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3130 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3131 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3132 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3133 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3134 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3135 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3136 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3137 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3138 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3139 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3140 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3141 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3142 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3143 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3144 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3146 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3147 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3148 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3149 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3150 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3151 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3152 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3153 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3154 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3155 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3156 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3157 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3158 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3159 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3160 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3161 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3162 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3163 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3164 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3165 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3166 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3167 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3168 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3169 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3170 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3171 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3172 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3173 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3174 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3176 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3178 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3180 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3181 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3183 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3185 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3187 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3189 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3191 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3193 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3195 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3197 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3199 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3202 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3203 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3205 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3207 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3209 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3211 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3213 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3215 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3217 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3219 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3222 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3224 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3226 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3228 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3229 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3231 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3232 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3234 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3236 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3237 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3238 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3240 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3242 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3244 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3245 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3247 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3248 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3249 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3250 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3252 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3253 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3254 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3256 Use the new ones from above instead.
3258 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3260 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3261 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3262 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3264 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3265 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3267 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3268 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3271 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3272 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3274 Use the new functions instead.
3276 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3279 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3281 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3283 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3286 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3288 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3291 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3293 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3296 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3297 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3298 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3300 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3302 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3303 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3305 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3306 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3307 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3308 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3311 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3313 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3314 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3315 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3316 inexact for an exact.
3318 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3319 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3320 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3323 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3324 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3325 accept an inexact argument.
3327 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3328 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3330 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3333 ** New number validation macros:
3334 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3338 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3340 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3341 scm_unprotect_object.
3343 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3345 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3347 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3350 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3352 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3356 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3358 * Changes to the distribution
3360 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3362 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3363 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3364 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3365 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
3366 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
3367 obtain these programs.
3368 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
3369 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
3371 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
3372 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
3373 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
3374 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
3375 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
3377 However, this approach means that minor differences between
3378 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
3379 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
3380 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
3384 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
3387 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
3388 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
3389 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
3390 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
3392 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
3394 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
3396 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
3397 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
3399 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
3400 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
3402 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
3403 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
3405 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
3406 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
3407 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
3408 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
3410 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
3412 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
3416 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
3417 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
3419 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
3421 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
3422 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
3424 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
3425 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
3426 number of objects of that kind.
3428 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
3430 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
3431 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
3432 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
3433 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
3434 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
3436 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
3438 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
3440 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
3442 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
3445 ** New module (ice-9 time)
3447 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
3449 ** New module (ice-9 history)
3451 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
3453 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3455 ** New command line option --debug
3457 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
3459 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
3461 ** New help facility
3463 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
3464 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
3465 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
3466 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
3467 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
3468 (help) gives this text
3470 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
3471 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
3473 Examples: (help help)
3475 (help "output-string")
3477 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
3479 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
3481 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
3482 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
3485 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
3486 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
3487 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
3490 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
3491 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
3492 use absolute filenames when possible.
3494 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
3495 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
3496 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
3499 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
3501 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
3502 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
3503 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
3504 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
3506 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
3508 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
3510 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
3511 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
3512 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
3514 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
3515 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
3516 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
3518 (read-enable 'positions)
3519 (debug-enable 'debug)
3521 ** Backtraces in scripts
3523 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
3527 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
3529 at the top of the script.
3531 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
3532 The second enables backtraces.)
3534 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
3536 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
3537 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
3538 substantially faster than before.
3540 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
3541 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
3543 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
3544 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
3546 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
3548 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
3549 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
3550 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
3552 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
3553 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
3554 when this hook is run in the future.
3556 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
3557 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
3559 ** Improvements to garbage collector
3561 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
3562 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
3565 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
3566 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
3567 more and more memory for certain programs.)
3569 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
3570 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
3572 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
3573 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
3575 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
3576 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
3577 in order not to need further allocation.)
3579 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
3582 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
3583 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
3584 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
3585 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
3587 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
3589 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
3592 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
3594 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3597 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3598 GC in percent of total heap size
3601 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3602 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3604 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3606 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3607 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3609 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3611 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3612 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3614 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3616 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3617 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3621 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3622 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3624 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3626 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3628 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3630 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3632 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3634 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3635 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3637 (simple-format port message . args)
3638 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3639 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3640 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3641 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3642 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3643 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3644 Does not add a trailing newline."
3646 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3648 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3649 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3651 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3652 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3654 ** Deprecated: list*
3656 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3658 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3660 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3661 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3663 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3664 is returned as result.
3666 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3668 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3670 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3672 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3673 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3676 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3678 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3680 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3681 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3683 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3685 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3687 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3689 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3691 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3693 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3695 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3697 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3698 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3699 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3701 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3704 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3706 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3707 the readability of argument checking.
3709 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3711 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3713 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3715 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3716 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3717 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3718 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3719 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3720 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3721 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3723 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3725 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3727 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3728 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3730 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3732 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3733 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3736 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3738 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3739 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3740 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3742 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3743 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3744 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3746 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3747 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3748 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3749 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3750 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3751 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3752 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3754 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3755 scm_end_input (object);
3756 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3757 ptob->flush (object);
3759 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3760 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3763 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3765 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3767 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3768 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3769 removed in a future version.
3771 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3773 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3774 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3775 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3776 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3778 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3779 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3781 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3784 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3786 in your configure.in.
3788 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3793 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3799 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3801 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3805 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3806 (define make-message string-append)
3808 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3810 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3814 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3819 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3823 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3825 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3826 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3828 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3830 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3831 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3832 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3833 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3834 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3835 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3837 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3838 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3839 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3841 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3842 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3843 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3846 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3847 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3848 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3849 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3850 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3852 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3853 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3854 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3855 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3856 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3857 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3858 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3860 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3862 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3863 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3864 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3866 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3867 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3868 KEY in the calling thread.
3870 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3871 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3872 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3873 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3874 associated with the key.
3876 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3878 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3879 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3881 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3883 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3884 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3885 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3887 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3889 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3890 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3892 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3894 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3896 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3897 returned is undefined.
3899 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3900 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3901 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3903 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3904 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3905 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3907 ** New C level GC hooks
3909 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3911 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3914 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3915 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3916 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3918 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3919 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3920 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3922 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3923 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3926 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3928 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3929 allocation parameters
3931 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3932 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3933 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3937 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3938 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3939 scm_default_max_segment_size
3941 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3943 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3944 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3946 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3948 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3949 object and count on the object being protected until
3950 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3952 The functions also have better time complexity.
3954 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3955 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3956 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3957 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3958 are no longer needed.
3960 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3962 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3963 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3964 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3965 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3967 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3969 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3971 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3973 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3974 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3975 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3976 until this issue has been settled.
3978 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3980 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3982 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3985 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3987 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3989 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3990 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3991 descriptors were checked.
3993 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3994 atomically written to a pipe.
3996 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3997 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3998 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3999 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4000 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4001 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4002 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4005 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4006 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4007 is changed without calling tzset.
4009 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4011 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4012 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4013 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4015 (define write-network-long
4016 (lambda (value port)
4017 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4018 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4019 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4021 (define read-network-long
4023 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4024 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4025 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4027 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4028 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4030 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4031 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4032 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4033 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4035 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4036 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4037 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4038 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4042 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4044 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4048 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4049 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4050 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4056 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4057 for a description of available commands.
4059 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4060 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4061 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4063 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4065 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4066 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4068 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4070 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4072 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4073 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4074 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4075 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4076 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4077 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4080 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4082 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4083 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4084 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4085 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4087 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4088 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4090 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4092 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4094 ** Readline support has changed again.
4096 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4097 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4098 to activate readline is now
4100 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4103 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4105 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4106 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4107 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4110 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4111 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4112 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4115 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4116 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4117 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4118 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4119 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4120 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4122 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4123 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4125 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4127 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4128 object it receives is the same string passed to
4129 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4130 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4131 string, not the suffix.
4133 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4134 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4135 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4137 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4139 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4140 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4141 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4142 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4145 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4147 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4149 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4150 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4151 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4152 appear from left to right.
4154 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4157 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4159 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4160 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4162 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4166 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4168 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4170 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4172 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4173 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4174 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4176 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4178 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4180 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4182 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4185 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4187 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4188 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4189 mentioning it here anyway.
4191 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4193 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4194 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4195 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4196 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4199 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4201 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4203 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4205 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4206 otherwise return #f.
4208 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4210 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4211 returned by `opendir'.
4213 ** New function: using-readline?
4215 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4217 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4219 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4220 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4222 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4224 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4226 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4227 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4228 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4230 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4232 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4233 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4235 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4237 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4238 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4239 documentation slots are not yet used.
4241 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4243 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4244 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4245 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4250 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4251 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4252 (string-append x y))
4254 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4255 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4257 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4258 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4259 be made in a clean way.]
4261 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4263 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4265 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4267 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4268 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4270 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4272 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4274 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4276 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4278 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4279 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4280 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4281 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4284 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4286 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4288 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4290 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4292 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4293 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4295 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4297 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4299 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4301 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4303 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4304 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4305 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4306 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4307 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4308 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4310 This should not make any difference for most users.
4312 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4314 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4315 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4317 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4319 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4320 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4321 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4322 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4323 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4325 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4327 It is now replaced by:
4329 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4331 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4332 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4334 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4336 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4337 This might change when we get the new module system.
4339 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4343 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4345 * Changes to mailing lists
4347 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4349 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4352 * Changes to the distribution
4354 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4356 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4357 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4358 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4359 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4360 you explicitly specify it.
4362 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4363 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4364 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4365 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
4366 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
4369 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
4370 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
4371 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
4372 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
4374 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
4375 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
4376 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
4379 You can activate the readline support by issuing
4381 (use-modules (readline-activator))
4384 from your ".guile" file, for example.
4386 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4388 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
4389 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
4390 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
4391 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
4393 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
4394 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
4397 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4399 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
4400 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
4401 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
4402 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
4403 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
4404 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
4405 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
4406 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
4418 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
4419 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
4420 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
4421 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
4422 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
4427 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
4428 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
4436 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
4441 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
4442 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
4445 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
4446 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
4447 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
4448 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
4450 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
4452 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
4454 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
4455 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
4457 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
4459 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
4461 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
4462 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
4464 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
4467 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
4469 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
4471 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
4473 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
4475 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
4477 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
4479 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
4480 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
4481 when the hook was created.
4483 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
4484 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
4485 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
4486 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
4487 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
4488 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
4489 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
4490 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
4491 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
4493 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
4494 the dlopen family of functions.
4496 ** New function `provided?'
4498 - Function: provided? FEATURE
4499 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
4500 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
4501 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
4503 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
4505 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
4506 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
4507 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
4508 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4511 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4512 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
4513 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
4514 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
4516 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
4517 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
4518 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
4521 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
4522 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
4523 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
4524 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
4525 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
4526 but with the flag set.
4528 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
4530 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
4531 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
4533 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
4534 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
4535 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
4536 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
4537 available Scheme format implementations.
4539 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
4540 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
4541 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
4542 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
4543 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
4544 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
4545 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
4546 output is to the current error port if available by the
4547 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
4550 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
4551 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
4552 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
4553 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
4554 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
4555 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
4556 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
4557 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
4559 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
4560 be executed at a time.
4563 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
4565 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
4566 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
4567 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
4569 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
4570 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
4571 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
4572 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
4573 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
4574 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
4575 general form of a directive is:
4577 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
4579 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
4581 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4583 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
4584 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
4585 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
4588 Any (print as `display' does).
4592 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
4596 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4600 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4606 print number sign always.
4609 print comma separated.
4611 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4617 print number sign always.
4620 print comma separated.
4622 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4628 print number sign always.
4631 print comma separated.
4633 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4639 print number sign always.
4642 print comma separated.
4644 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4649 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4653 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4656 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4659 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4662 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4667 prints `y' and `ies'.
4670 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4673 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4678 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4682 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4685 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4686 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4688 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4691 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4692 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4694 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4697 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4699 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4701 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4704 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4706 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4708 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4711 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4714 The sign appears before the padding.
4722 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4724 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4729 print N page separators.
4739 newline is ignored, white space left.
4742 newline is left, white space ignored.
4747 relative tabulation.
4753 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4755 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4758 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4760 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4763 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4766 converts by `string-upcase'.
4769 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4771 jumps N arguments forward.
4774 jumps 1 argument backward.
4777 jumps N arguments backward.
4780 jumps to the 0th argument.
4783 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4785 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4786 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4788 take argument from N.
4791 true test conditional.
4794 if-else-then conditional.
4800 default clause follows.
4803 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4805 at most N iterations.
4808 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4811 args from the rest of arguments.
4814 args from the rest args (lists).
4825 aborts if N <= M <= K
4827 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4830 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4833 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4839 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4841 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4843 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4844 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4845 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4846 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4847 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4848 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4852 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4856 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4862 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4865 Print a `#\space' character
4867 print N `#\space' characters.
4870 Print a `#\tab' character
4872 print N `#\tab' characters.
4875 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4876 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4877 must be a positive decimal number.
4880 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4881 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4882 be processed by `read'.
4885 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4886 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4887 be processed by `read'.
4890 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4893 prints format version.
4896 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4897 and format it accordingly.
4899 *** Configuration Variables
4901 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4902 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4903 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4904 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4907 format:symbol-case-conv
4908 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4909 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4910 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4911 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4912 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4914 format:iobj-case-conv
4915 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4916 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4919 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4922 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4928 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4929 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4930 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4931 `format' padding style.
4934 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4935 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4936 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4937 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4941 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4942 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4943 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4946 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4947 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4948 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4949 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4950 parameters or modifiers)).
4953 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4955 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4957 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4958 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4960 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4961 string-downcase! functions.
4963 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4964 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4966 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4969 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4972 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4973 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4975 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4977 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4978 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4980 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4981 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4982 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4983 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4984 would if STRING were input.
4986 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4988 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4989 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4990 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4991 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4994 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4996 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4997 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5000 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5002 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5003 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5005 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5006 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5008 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5009 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5010 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5011 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5013 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5014 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5016 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5017 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5018 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5020 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5021 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5023 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5024 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5025 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5026 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5027 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5029 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5030 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5031 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5032 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5033 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5034 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5036 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5037 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5038 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5041 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5042 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5043 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5044 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5045 the following grammar:
5046 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5047 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5048 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5049 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5050 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5051 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5052 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5053 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5054 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5055 last option in its combination)
5057 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5058 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5059 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5060 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5062 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5063 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5064 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5066 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5067 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5068 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5070 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5071 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5072 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5073 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5074 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5075 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5076 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5077 ordinary argument strings.
5079 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5080 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5081 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5082 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5084 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5085 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5087 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5088 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5089 - a required option is omitted
5090 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5091 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5092 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5093 - an option predicate fails
5098 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5101 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5102 (verbose (required? #f)
5105 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5106 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5107 (predicate ,string?))))
5109 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5110 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5112 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5113 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5114 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5115 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5118 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5120 It will be removed in a few releases.
5122 ** New syntax: lambda*
5123 ** New syntax: define*
5124 ** New syntax: define*-public
5125 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5126 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5127 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5129 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5130 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5131 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5132 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5133 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5135 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5136 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5137 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5139 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5141 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5142 and examples for `lambda*':
5145 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5147 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5148 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5149 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5150 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5151 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5152 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5153 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5154 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5156 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5158 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5159 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5160 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5161 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5163 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5164 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5165 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5166 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5167 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5168 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5169 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5170 and until the procedure is called.
5172 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5174 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5175 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5176 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5177 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5178 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5179 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5180 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5181 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5182 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5183 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5185 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5186 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5187 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5188 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5191 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5193 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5194 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5195 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5196 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5198 ** New syntax: and-let*
5199 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5201 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5202 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5203 (<variable> <expression>)
5206 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5207 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5208 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5211 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5212 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5213 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5214 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5215 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5216 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5217 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5219 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5220 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5221 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5222 shadow earlier bindings.
5224 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5226 ** New sorting functions
5228 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5229 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5230 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5231 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5233 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5234 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5237 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5238 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5239 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5241 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5242 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5243 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5244 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5246 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5247 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5248 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5249 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5250 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5253 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5254 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5255 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5256 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5257 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5258 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5260 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5261 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5262 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5264 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5265 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5266 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5269 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5270 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5271 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5273 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5274 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5276 ** New built-in random number support
5278 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5279 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5280 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5281 returned have a uniform distribution.
5283 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5284 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5285 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5286 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5287 effect of the `random' operation.
5289 *** New variable: *random-state*
5290 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5291 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5292 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5293 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5294 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5297 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5298 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5299 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5300 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5301 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5303 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5304 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5305 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5306 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5307 initialized using SEED.
5309 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5310 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5311 range between 0 and 1.
5313 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5314 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5315 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5316 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5317 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5318 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5319 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5321 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5322 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5323 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5324 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5325 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5326 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5328 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5329 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5330 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5331 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5333 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5334 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5335 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5336 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5338 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5339 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5340 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5342 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5344 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5347 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5348 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5351 ** New function: make-guardian
5352 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5353 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5354 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5355 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5356 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5358 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5359 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5360 one object if at all.
5362 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5363 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5364 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
5366 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
5367 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
5368 read again in last-in first-out order.
5370 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
5371 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
5373 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
5375 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
5376 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
5377 file position is used.
5379 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
5380 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
5381 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
5383 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
5384 redefined using seek.
5386 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
5387 size is not supplied.
5389 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
5390 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
5392 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
5393 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
5395 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
5397 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
5398 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
5399 and returns the contents as a single string.
5401 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
5402 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
5403 lists in serial order.
5405 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
5406 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
5407 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
5409 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
5410 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
5411 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
5412 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
5414 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
5415 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
5416 and #f if an error occured.
5418 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
5420 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
5421 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
5422 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
5423 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
5425 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
5427 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
5430 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
5432 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
5435 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5439 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
5440 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
5442 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
5443 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
5447 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5449 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
5451 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5452 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5454 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5456 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
5457 might change when we get the new module system.
5459 ** The smob interface
5461 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
5462 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
5464 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
5466 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
5470 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
5471 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
5472 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
5473 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
5474 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
5475 will be freed by the default free function.
5477 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5478 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
5479 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5480 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5482 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5483 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
5484 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5485 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5487 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
5489 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
5490 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
5494 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
5495 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5496 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5498 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
5499 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
5500 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5501 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5503 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
5504 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
5505 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
5507 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
5508 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
5509 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
5510 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
5512 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
5513 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
5514 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
5516 *** scm_newptob has been removed
5520 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
5522 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
5523 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
5524 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
5526 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
5527 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
5528 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
5530 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
5531 a string port's buffer.
5533 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
5534 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
5535 function pointers which together define the current random number
5536 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
5537 number library functions.
5539 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
5542 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
5543 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
5546 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
5547 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5549 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
5550 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
5552 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
5553 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
5556 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
5557 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
5558 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
5559 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
5561 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
5562 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
5563 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
5564 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
5565 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
5566 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
5567 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
5569 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
5570 by libguile and the application.
5572 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5573 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5574 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
5575 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
5577 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
5578 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
5580 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5581 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
5582 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
5584 ** Random number library functions
5585 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
5586 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
5587 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
5589 The default random state is stored in:
5591 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
5592 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
5593 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5598 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5600 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5601 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5602 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5603 isn't a random state.
5605 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5606 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5608 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5609 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5610 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5611 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5613 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5614 Return 32 random bits.
5616 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5617 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5619 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5620 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5622 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5623 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5625 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5626 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5628 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5629 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5630 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5634 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5636 * Changes to the distribution
5638 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5639 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5640 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5643 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5644 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5645 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5647 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5648 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5649 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5650 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5653 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5654 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5655 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5657 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5659 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5661 *** Function: batch-mode?
5663 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5666 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5668 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5669 case has not been implemented.
5671 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5672 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5673 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5676 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5677 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5679 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5681 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5683 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5685 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5686 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5689 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5690 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5691 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5692 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5695 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5697 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5698 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5699 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5700 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5701 find those libraries.
5703 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5704 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5707 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5709 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5710 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5711 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5712 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5714 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5715 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5716 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5720 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5722 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5723 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5724 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5727 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5728 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5729 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5730 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5732 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5733 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5736 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5737 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5738 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5739 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5740 compiler where to find the libraries.
5742 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5743 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5744 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5746 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5747 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5748 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5749 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5750 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5754 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5756 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5757 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5758 internationalization support.
5760 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5761 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5762 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5763 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5764 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5766 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5767 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5768 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5769 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5770 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5772 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5773 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5774 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5775 any GNU mirror site.
5777 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5779 ** New function: add-history STRING
5780 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5781 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5782 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5784 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5786 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5787 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5788 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5791 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5792 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5793 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5795 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5797 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5800 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5801 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5804 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5805 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5806 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5807 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5808 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5809 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5811 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5812 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5813 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5814 of the form mentioned above.
5816 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5817 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5818 returned in the special `rest' list.
5820 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5821 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5823 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5825 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5827 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5829 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5830 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5831 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5832 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5833 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5834 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5835 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5836 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5839 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5841 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5843 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5844 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5847 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5848 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5849 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5853 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5854 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5855 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5856 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5857 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5858 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5859 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5860 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5863 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5865 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5866 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5867 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5869 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5871 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5872 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5874 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5875 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5876 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5878 Why do we have this function?
5879 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5880 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5881 primitive, and display it differently, and
5882 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5883 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5886 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5887 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5890 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5891 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5892 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5893 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5895 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5896 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5899 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5900 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5902 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5904 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5905 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5906 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5907 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5908 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5909 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5910 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5913 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5915 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5916 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5918 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5919 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5920 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5921 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5922 properly continue the print chain.
5924 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5925 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5926 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5927 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5928 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5929 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5930 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5931 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5933 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5934 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5935 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5936 safest to not check for these pairs.
5938 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5939 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5940 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5941 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5943 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5945 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5946 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5948 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5950 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5952 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5953 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5954 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5956 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5957 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5958 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5960 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5961 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5962 the following functions and macros:
5964 Function: make-fluid
5966 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5967 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5968 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5969 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5970 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5972 Function: fluid? OBJ
5974 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5976 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5977 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5979 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5980 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5982 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5984 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5985 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5986 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5987 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5988 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5989 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5990 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5992 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5994 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5995 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5996 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5997 should evaluate to a fluid.
5999 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6001 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6002 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6003 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6004 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6005 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6007 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6010 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6012 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6014 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6016 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6019 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6020 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6021 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6022 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6023 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6026 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6027 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6028 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6030 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6031 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6032 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6034 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6035 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6036 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6037 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6039 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6040 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6041 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6042 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6044 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6045 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6046 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6047 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6049 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6050 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6051 their revealed counts set to zero.
6053 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6054 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6056 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6057 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6059 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6060 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6062 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6063 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6064 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6066 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6067 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6068 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6070 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6071 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6072 default environment inherited by child processes.
6074 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6075 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6076 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6078 The return value is unspecified.
6080 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6081 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6082 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6083 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6084 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6086 The return value is unspecified.
6088 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6089 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6097 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6098 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6101 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6104 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6105 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6106 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6108 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6109 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6110 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6111 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6114 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6115 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6117 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6118 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6119 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6120 the `environ' procedure.
6122 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6123 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6126 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6127 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6129 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6130 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6131 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6132 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6134 *** procedure: times
6135 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6136 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6137 return a selected component:
6140 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6144 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6147 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6151 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6152 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6156 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6157 terminated child processes.
6159 ** Removed: list-length
6160 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6161 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6163 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6165 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6167 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6169 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6170 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6171 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6172 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6174 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6175 extra complexity it introduces.
6177 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6178 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6180 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6181 variable to any non-empty value.
6183 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6184 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6186 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6188 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6189 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6191 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6193 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6194 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6196 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6198 ** vector handling routines
6200 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6201 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6202 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6203 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6204 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6206 ** pair and list routines
6208 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6211 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6213 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6216 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6218 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6220 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6221 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6222 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6223 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6224 site-specific initialization code.
6226 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6227 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6228 initialization processes.
6230 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6231 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6232 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6233 initialized properly.
6235 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6236 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6237 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6239 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6240 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6241 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6242 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6243 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6245 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6247 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6248 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6249 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6250 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6251 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6253 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6254 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6255 which look like this:
6258 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6260 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6261 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6264 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6265 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6268 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6270 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6271 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6272 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6274 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6275 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6276 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6277 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6278 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6280 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6281 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6283 int (*free) (SCM port);
6284 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6285 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6286 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6290 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6291 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6292 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6294 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6297 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6298 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6299 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6301 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6302 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6303 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6306 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6310 struct timeval *timeout);
6312 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6313 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6314 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6315 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6316 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6317 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6319 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6320 scm_catch_body_t body,
6322 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6325 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6326 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6327 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6328 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6329 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6330 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6332 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6334 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6337 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6338 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6339 spawning threads from application C code.
6341 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6342 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6343 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6344 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6345 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6346 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6348 ** Removed functions:
6350 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6351 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6353 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6355 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6356 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6358 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6360 ** mbstrings are now removed
6362 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6363 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6365 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
6367 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
6368 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
6369 their new names and arguments:
6371 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
6372 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
6373 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
6374 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
6377 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
6379 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
6381 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
6384 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
6386 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
6387 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
6388 pass a #f arg to catch.
6390 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
6392 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
6393 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
6396 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
6397 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
6398 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
6399 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
6400 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
6401 reclaim its storage.
6403 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
6404 worrying that some other function you call will call
6405 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
6406 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
6407 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
6408 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
6411 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
6413 * Changes to the distribution
6415 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
6416 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
6419 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
6420 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
6422 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6423 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6425 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
6427 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
6428 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
6429 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
6431 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6433 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
6434 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
6435 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
6436 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
6437 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
6438 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
6440 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
6441 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
6442 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
6445 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
6446 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
6447 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
6448 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
6450 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
6451 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
6452 libraries to your link command:
6454 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
6455 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
6456 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6457 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6459 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
6460 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
6461 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
6463 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6465 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
6466 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
6469 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
6471 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
6472 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
6473 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
6474 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
6475 searched is system dependent.
6477 (dynamic-object? VAL)
6479 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
6481 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
6483 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
6484 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
6486 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6488 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
6489 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
6490 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
6491 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
6492 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
6495 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6497 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
6498 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
6499 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
6500 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
6501 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
6503 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
6505 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
6506 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
6508 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
6510 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
6511 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
6512 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
6515 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
6517 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
6518 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
6519 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
6520 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
6522 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
6523 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
6525 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
6527 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
6528 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
6530 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
6532 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
6533 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
6541 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
6543 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
6544 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
6545 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
6546 a more informative way.
6548 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
6549 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
6550 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
6551 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
6552 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
6553 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
6555 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
6556 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
6559 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
6560 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
6561 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
6564 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
6565 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
6566 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
6567 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
6568 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
6569 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
6571 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
6572 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
6573 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
6574 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
6577 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
6578 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
6579 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
6580 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
6581 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
6582 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
6584 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
6585 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
6586 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
6587 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
6588 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
6590 *** regexp functions
6592 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
6593 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
6594 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
6596 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6597 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6598 with SCSH regular expressions.
6600 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6601 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6602 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6603 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6605 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6606 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6607 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6608 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6610 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6611 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6612 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6613 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6614 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6615 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6617 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6618 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6619 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6620 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6621 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6623 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6625 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6626 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6627 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6628 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6630 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6631 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6632 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6634 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6635 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6637 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6640 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6641 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6642 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6644 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6645 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6646 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6648 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6649 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6650 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6651 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6652 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6655 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6657 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6658 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6659 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6660 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6661 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6662 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6664 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6665 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6666 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6668 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6669 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6672 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6673 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6675 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6676 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6677 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6678 may be one of the following arguments:
6680 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6682 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6684 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6685 the regexp match is written.
6687 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6688 following the regexp match is written.
6690 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6691 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6694 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6695 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6696 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6697 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6698 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6699 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6701 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6704 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6705 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6706 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6707 written out to PORT.
6709 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6710 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6711 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6712 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6713 will return after processing a single match.
6715 *** Match Structures
6717 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6718 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6719 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6720 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6721 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6722 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6725 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6726 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6727 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6728 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6729 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6731 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6732 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6733 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6735 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6736 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6737 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6738 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6739 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6741 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6742 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6744 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6745 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6747 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6748 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6750 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6751 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6753 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6754 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6755 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6756 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6758 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6759 Return the original TARGET string.
6761 *** Backslash Escapes
6763 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6764 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6765 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6766 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6767 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6768 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6770 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6771 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6772 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6773 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6774 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6775 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6776 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6777 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6779 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6780 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6781 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6782 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6783 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6784 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6785 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6787 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6788 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6789 return the resulting string.
6791 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6792 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6793 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6794 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6795 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6796 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6797 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6798 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6799 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6800 translated to the single character `*'.
6802 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6803 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6804 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6805 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6806 consecutive backslashes:
6808 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6810 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6811 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6812 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6814 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6815 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6816 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6817 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6818 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6819 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6821 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6823 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6824 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6825 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6826 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6827 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6828 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6829 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6830 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6831 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6832 cumbersome escape syntax.
6834 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6836 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6838 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6840 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6843 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6845 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6847 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6850 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6851 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6852 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6853 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6854 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6856 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6857 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6858 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6859 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6860 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6861 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6862 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6865 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6866 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6867 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6870 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6871 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6873 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6874 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6875 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6876 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6877 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6878 installed, you can say:
6880 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6883 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6885 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6886 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6887 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6888 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6889 new dynamic roots and threads.
6892 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6894 * Changes to the distribution.
6896 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6898 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6899 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6900 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6901 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6902 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6903 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6904 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6905 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6907 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6910 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6911 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6916 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6918 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6919 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6921 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6922 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6923 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6924 the (command-line) function.
6925 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6926 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6927 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6929 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6930 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6931 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6932 command line arguments
6933 -ds do -s script at this point
6934 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6935 -h, --help display this help and exit
6936 -v, --version display version information and exit
6937 \ read arguments from following script lines
6939 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6940 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6942 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6945 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6949 (main (command-line))
6951 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6953 ekko a speckled gecko
6955 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6956 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6957 following list of command-line arguments:
6959 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6961 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6962 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6963 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6964 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6965 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6967 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6969 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6971 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6972 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6975 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6976 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6977 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6978 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6980 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6981 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6982 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6983 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6985 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6989 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6993 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6995 ekko a speckled gecko
6997 Unix expands this into
6999 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7001 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7002 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7004 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7006 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7007 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7009 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7010 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7011 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7012 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7013 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7014 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7015 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7016 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7017 it only terminates the argument list.)
7018 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7019 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7020 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7021 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7022 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7023 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7024 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7025 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7027 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7029 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7030 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7031 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7032 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7033 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7035 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7036 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7037 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7039 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7041 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7042 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7043 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7044 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7047 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7048 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7049 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7051 * Changes to Scheme functions
7053 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7054 and disabled by default.
7056 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7057 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7058 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7059 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7061 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7063 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7065 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7066 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7068 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7069 (read-set! keywords #f)
7071 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7072 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7073 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7076 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7077 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7078 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7081 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7082 support for Scheme functions.
7084 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7085 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7086 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7087 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7090 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7091 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7092 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7095 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7096 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7097 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7100 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7101 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7102 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7103 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7104 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7105 display the result as a prompt.
7106 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7108 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7109 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7110 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7113 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7114 procedure of zero arguments.
7116 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7117 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7118 argument is bound in the current module.
7120 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7121 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7122 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7123 public bindings into the current module.
7125 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7126 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7128 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7129 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7131 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7132 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7134 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7135 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7137 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7138 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7140 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7141 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7142 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7143 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7144 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7146 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7147 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7148 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7149 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7151 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7154 ** Changes to I/O functions
7156 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7157 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7158 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7160 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7161 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7162 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7164 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7165 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7167 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7168 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7169 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7170 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7172 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7174 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7175 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7177 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7178 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7179 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7180 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7181 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7184 'trim omit delimiter from result
7185 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7186 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7187 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7189 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7191 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7192 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7194 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7195 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7196 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7197 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7198 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7200 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7201 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7202 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7204 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7205 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7206 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7207 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7209 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7210 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7212 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7213 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7215 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7217 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7218 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7219 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7220 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7221 a delimiting character.
7222 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7224 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7225 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7226 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7227 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7228 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7229 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7231 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7232 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7234 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7235 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7236 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7238 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7239 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7240 the array to read and write.
7242 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7243 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7246 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7248 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7251 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7252 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7253 Values for COMMAND are:
7255 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7256 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7257 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7258 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7259 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7260 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7261 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7262 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7264 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7266 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7267 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7268 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7269 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7270 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7271 corresponding return set will be the same.
7273 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7276 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7277 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7278 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7279 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7280 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7281 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7282 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7283 special file being created.
7285 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7286 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7288 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7289 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7290 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7291 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7292 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7293 and originating address.
7295 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7296 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7297 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7299 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7302 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7303 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7306 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7307 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7308 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7309 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7310 this function returns #f.
7312 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7313 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7314 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7317 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7318 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7319 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7322 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7323 a valid STATUS value.
7325 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7327 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7328 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7330 Component Accessor Setter
7331 ========================= ============ ============
7332 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7333 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7334 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7335 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7336 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7337 year tm:year set-tm:year
7338 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7339 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7340 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7341 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7342 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7344 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7345 describing the host system:
7348 ============================================== ================
7349 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7350 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7351 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7352 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7353 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7355 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7356 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7357 system's user database:
7360 ====================== =================
7361 user name passwd:name
7362 user password passwd:passwd
7365 real name passwd:gecos
7366 home directory passwd:dir
7367 shell program passwd:shell
7369 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
7370 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
7371 system's group database:
7374 ======================= ============
7375 group name group:name
7376 group password group:passwd
7378 group members group:mem
7380 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
7381 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
7385 ========================= ===============
7386 official name of host hostent:name
7387 alias list hostent:aliases
7388 host address type hostent:addrtype
7389 length of address hostent:length
7390 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
7392 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
7393 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
7397 ========================= ===============
7398 official name of net netent:name
7399 alias list netent:aliases
7400 net number type netent:addrtype
7401 net number netent:net
7403 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
7404 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
7408 ========================= ===============
7409 official protocol name protoent:name
7410 alias list protoent:aliases
7411 protocol number protoent:proto
7413 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
7414 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
7418 ========================= ===============
7419 official service name servent:name
7420 alias list servent:aliases
7421 port number servent:port
7422 protocol to use servent:proto
7424 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
7425 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
7428 ======================================== ===============
7429 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
7430 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
7431 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
7432 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
7434 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
7435 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
7436 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
7438 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
7439 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
7441 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
7442 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
7444 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
7445 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
7447 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
7449 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
7451 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
7452 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
7453 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
7455 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
7456 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
7457 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
7458 return the remaining characters as a string.
7460 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
7461 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
7462 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
7464 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
7466 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7468 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
7471 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
7474 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
7475 and returns the array
7477 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
7478 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
7479 the user to interpret the data both ways.
7481 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7483 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
7484 symbol's value from C code:
7486 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
7487 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
7488 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
7489 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
7491 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
7492 without assigning them a value.
7494 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
7495 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
7496 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
7498 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
7499 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
7500 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
7502 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
7503 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
7505 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
7506 doesn't actually care about that.
7508 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
7509 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
7510 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
7512 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
7513 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
7514 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
7515 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
7516 which we have just created and initialized.
7518 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
7519 should one occur. We call it like this:
7520 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
7522 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
7523 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
7524 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
7525 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
7526 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
7527 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
7530 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
7531 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
7532 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
7533 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
7534 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
7535 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
7536 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
7539 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
7540 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
7541 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
7542 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
7543 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
7546 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
7547 scm_internal_catch, except:
7549 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
7550 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
7551 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
7552 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
7555 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
7556 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
7557 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
7559 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
7560 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
7561 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
7562 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
7565 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
7566 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
7567 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
7569 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
7570 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
7571 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
7572 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
7573 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
7575 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
7576 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
7577 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
7579 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
7580 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
7581 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
7583 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
7584 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
7586 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
7587 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
7588 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
7591 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
7592 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
7593 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
7594 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
7595 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
7596 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7597 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7600 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7601 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7603 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7604 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7605 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7606 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7607 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7610 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7611 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7613 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7614 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7617 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7618 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7620 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7623 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7624 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7625 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7626 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7627 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7628 given the following arguments:
7630 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7632 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7634 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7636 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7639 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7640 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7641 command-line arguments.
7643 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7644 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7645 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7646 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7647 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7648 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7651 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7654 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7655 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7657 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7658 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7660 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7661 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7662 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7663 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7665 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7666 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7668 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7669 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7670 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7671 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7673 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7674 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7676 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7677 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7679 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7681 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7682 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7683 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7686 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7687 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7689 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7690 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7695 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7698 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7700 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7701 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7702 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7703 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7705 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7707 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7709 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7710 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7711 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7712 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7713 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7714 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7715 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7716 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7717 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7718 for more information.
7720 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7721 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7723 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7724 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7725 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7726 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7727 following two lines at the top of the file:
7729 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7732 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7733 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7734 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7736 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7738 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7740 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7743 (display (car args))
7744 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7746 (loop (cdr args)))))
7749 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7750 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7751 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7752 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7753 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7754 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7758 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7761 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7764 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7766 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7767 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7768 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7769 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7770 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7773 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7774 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7775 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7776 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7777 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7780 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7783 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7784 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7785 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7788 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7789 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7790 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7792 to see a backtrace, and
7793 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7794 to see them by default.
7798 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7800 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7802 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7803 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7806 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7807 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7808 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7809 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7812 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7813 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7814 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7815 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7816 functions which inspired them.
7818 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7819 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7823 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7825 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7827 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7828 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7831 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7832 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7833 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7835 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7836 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7837 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7838 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7839 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7841 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7843 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7844 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7845 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7848 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7851 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7853 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7854 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7855 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7856 above should serve their purposes.
7858 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7859 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7860 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7861 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7863 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7866 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7867 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7868 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7869 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7871 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7872 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7873 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7874 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7876 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7877 for the `read' function.
7880 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7881 to that of `integer?'.
7883 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7884 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7886 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7887 it simply returns the object's property list.
7889 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7890 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7891 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7892 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7894 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7896 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7899 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7901 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7902 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7904 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7906 void (*main_func) (),
7909 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7910 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7911 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7912 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7913 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7915 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7916 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7917 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7918 know which arguments have been processed.
7920 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7921 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7922 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7923 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7924 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7926 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7927 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7928 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7929 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7930 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7931 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7932 people from making that mistake.
7934 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7935 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7937 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7939 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7943 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7946 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7947 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7948 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7949 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7952 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7953 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7954 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7955 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7958 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7959 have been added to the Guile library.
7961 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7962 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7963 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7966 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7967 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7968 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7970 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7971 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7972 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7973 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7974 argument from the list.
7977 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7980 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7981 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7983 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7984 to a Scheme port object.
7986 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7987 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7992 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7994 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7995 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7996 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7997 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7998 code as a special datatype.
8000 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8001 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8002 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8003 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8004 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8007 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8008 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8009 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8010 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8011 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8013 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8016 Copyright information:
8018 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8020 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8021 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8022 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8023 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8025 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8026 of this document, or of portions of it,
8027 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8028 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8033 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"