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, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
11 Changes since the 1.9.15 prerelease:
13 ** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
15 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
16 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
17 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
18 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
19 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
20 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
22 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
23 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
25 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
27 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
29 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
31 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
36 Changes in 1.9.15 (since the 1.9.14 prerelease):
38 ** Formally deprecate omission of port to `format'
40 It used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in some
41 cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
45 Noah Lavine and Kan-Ru Chen noticed and fixed a number of embarrassing
46 bugs in object creation, unicode literals in strings, empty function
47 bodies, non-breaking whitespace, and numeric literals.
49 ** `(web ...)' changes
51 *** `parse-uri', `unparse-uri' now called `string->uri', `uri->string'
53 *** `uri-decode' takes `#:encoding' keyword argument, not `#:charset'
55 *** HTTP header representation change
57 Guile properly garbage-collects symbols, so there's no need to read some
58 headers as symbols and some as strings: all header names are symbols
59 now. The same goes for many key-value constructs in headers. Guile
60 parses the challenge/authentication headers now, as well. Header decl
61 objects are no longer exposed to the user.
63 *** Request and response bodies are always bytevectors
65 Reading bodies as latin-1 strings was a cute hack, but not general, so
66 Guile's only official fetch-me-the-body procedures return bytevectors
69 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
70 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_symbol{n,}
72 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
75 Basically, continue to use locale encoding for user input, user output,
76 or interacting with the C library. Use latin1 for ASCII, and for
77 literals in source code. Use utf8 for interaction with modern libraries
78 which deal in UTF-8. Use utf32 for interaction with utf32-using
79 libraries. Otherwise use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a
82 Also, scm_from_latin1_symbol is quite a bit faster now.
84 ** Documentation updates
86 The GOOPS manual saw a lot of work, as well as documentation for the
89 ** Guile uses iconv directly for reading from and writing to ports.
91 In addition to providing faster Unicode I/O (e.g., `display',
92 `read-char'), this change improves error reporting.
94 For instance, the `encoding-error' exception conveys information about
95 the port and character that could not be encoded. Likewise, the new
96 `decoding-error' exception conveys information about the port from which
97 data failed to be decoded, and leaves the port in a known position.
99 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
101 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
102 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
107 Thanks to Mark Harig for many suggestions regarding the manual page,
108 which is getting better.
110 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
112 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
113 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
115 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
117 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
118 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
120 ** New foreign API: `define-wrapped-pointer-type', `pointer?'
122 See "Foreign Types", for more.
124 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
126 *** Added two new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
128 Added two new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
129 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
130 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
131 floating point numbers.
133 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
134 must be non-zero. `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and
135 `euclidean-remainder' returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and
136 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/' returns both Q and R, and is more
137 efficient than computing each separately. Note that when D > 0,
138 `euclidean-quotient' returns floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns
141 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
142 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
143 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer.
145 Note that these operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division
146 operators `div', `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and
149 *** Complex number changes
151 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
152 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
153 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
155 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
156 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
157 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
159 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
160 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
161 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
162 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
164 **** `make-rectangular' changes
166 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
167 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
168 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
170 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
171 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
172 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
174 **** `make-polar' changes
176 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
177 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
178 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
179 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
181 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
182 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
183 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
185 **** `imag-part' changes
187 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
188 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
191 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
193 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
194 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
195 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
196 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
199 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
201 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
202 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
203 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
204 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
206 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
208 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
209 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
210 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
211 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
212 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
213 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
216 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
218 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
219 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
220 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
221 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
224 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
226 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
227 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
228 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
229 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
230 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
231 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
232 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
233 even support multiplication.
235 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
237 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
238 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
239 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
240 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
242 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
244 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
245 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
246 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
248 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
250 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
251 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
252 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
255 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
257 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
258 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
259 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
260 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
261 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
263 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
265 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
266 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
267 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
268 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
270 *** New procedure: `finite?'
272 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
273 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
274 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
275 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
277 *** R6RS base library changes
279 **** `div', `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', `div0-and-mod0'
281 Efficient versions of these R6RS division operators are now supported.
282 See the NEWS entry entitled `Added two new sets of fast quotient and
283 remainder operators' for more information.
285 **** `infinite?' changes
287 `infinite?' and `finite?' now throw exceptions for non-numbers. (Note
288 that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite their name).
290 **** `real-valued?', `rational-valued?' and `integer-valued?' changes
292 These predicates are now implemented in accordance with R6RS.
294 ** R6RS textual I/O procedures raise R6RS error conditions
296 R6RS procedures `get-char', `put-string', etc. now raise the correct
297 R6RS error coding, i.e., `&i/o-decoding-error' or `&i/o-encoding-error'.
299 ** New reader option: `hungry-eol-escapes'
301 Guile's string syntax is more compatible with R6RS when the
302 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled. See "String Syntax" in the
303 manual, for more information.
305 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
307 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
311 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
313 * New modules (see the manual for details)
315 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
316 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
317 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
318 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
319 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
320 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
321 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
322 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
323 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
324 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
325 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
326 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
327 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
328 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
329 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
330 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
331 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
332 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
333 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
334 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
335 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
336 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
337 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
339 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
341 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
342 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
343 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
345 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
346 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
347 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
349 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
351 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
352 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
353 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
355 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
357 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
358 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
361 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
363 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
365 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
366 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
368 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
370 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
371 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
372 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
374 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
375 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
377 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
378 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
379 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
382 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
384 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
385 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
387 ** Remove old Emacs interface
389 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
390 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
391 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
394 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
396 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
397 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
398 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
401 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
403 ** Command line additions
405 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
406 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
409 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
411 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
412 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
413 parentheses. This option is on by default.
415 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
416 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
417 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
418 so this option is off by default.
420 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
422 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
423 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
424 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
426 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
427 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
429 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
431 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
432 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
433 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
435 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
436 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
437 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
438 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
440 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
441 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
444 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
446 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
449 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
451 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
452 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
453 include `/path/to/lib'.
455 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
457 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
460 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
462 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
463 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
464 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
465 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
468 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
470 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
471 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
472 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
474 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
476 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
477 just for the operator position.
479 ** Expression-oriented readline history
481 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
482 input lines. Let us know what you think!
484 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
486 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
487 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
489 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
491 ** Support for R6RS libraries
493 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
494 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
495 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
496 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
497 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
499 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
501 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
502 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
503 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
505 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
507 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
510 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
511 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
512 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
515 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
516 mentioned in that compatibility list.
518 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
520 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
521 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
522 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
523 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
525 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
526 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
527 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
528 code, and simplifying debugging.
530 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
531 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
533 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
534 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
535 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
536 both of these situations.
538 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
539 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
540 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
541 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
543 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
545 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
546 not apply to the compiler.
548 ** No more `local-eval'
550 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
551 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
552 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
553 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
556 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
557 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
560 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
562 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
563 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
564 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
566 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
567 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
568 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
571 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
572 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
573 will be created if needed.
575 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
576 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
578 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
580 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
581 in the next prerelease.
583 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
585 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
587 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
589 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
591 ** Multicast socket options
593 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
594 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
597 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
599 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
601 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
603 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
605 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
607 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
608 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
609 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
611 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
612 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
613 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
614 procedures' docstrings for more information.
616 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
617 combining arity and formals. For example:
619 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
620 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
622 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
625 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
627 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
628 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
629 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
630 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
632 ** New language: ECMAScript
634 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
635 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
636 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
637 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
639 ** New language: Brainfuck
641 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
642 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
643 languages. See the manual for details, or
644 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
645 Brainfuck language itself.
647 ** New language: Elisp
649 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
650 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
651 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
653 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
655 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
656 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
657 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
658 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
661 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
663 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
664 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
665 properties. For example:
671 (procedure-properties foo)
672 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
674 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
677 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
679 (procedure-properties bar)
680 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
682 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
685 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
688 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
690 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
691 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
694 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
695 (define (helper x) ...)
697 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
699 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
702 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
703 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
705 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
707 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
708 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
709 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
711 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
713 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
714 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
715 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
716 for more information.
718 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
720 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
721 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
723 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
725 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
728 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
730 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
731 in the manual, for more information.
733 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
736 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
737 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
739 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
741 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
743 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
745 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
746 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
747 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
748 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
749 in response to user feedback.
751 ** Support for `letrec*'
753 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
754 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
755 manual, for more details.
757 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
759 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
760 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
765 (define baz (+ bar 20))
768 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
769 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
770 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
773 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
774 in earlier Guile dialects.
776 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
778 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
779 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
780 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
781 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
783 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
784 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
785 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
786 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
789 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
791 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
792 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
795 (define (helper x) ...)
796 (define-macro (foo bar)
799 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
802 (define (helper x) ...)
803 (define-macro (foo bar)
804 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
806 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
810 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
812 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
814 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
821 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
822 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
825 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
827 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
828 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
831 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
833 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
834 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
835 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
837 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
839 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
843 (define-macro (ref x) x)
846 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
847 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
848 macros before code that uses them.
850 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
853 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
855 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
856 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
857 (double-literal 2) => 4
859 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
860 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
861 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
863 (eval-when (load compile eval)
864 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
865 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
866 (double-literal 2) => 4
868 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
870 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
872 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
873 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
874 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
875 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
878 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
880 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
881 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
883 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
885 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
886 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
887 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
889 ** Incompatible change to #'
891 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
892 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
893 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
894 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
896 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
898 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
901 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
903 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
904 in the manual, for more information.
906 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
907 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
909 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
910 works (with compiled procedures)
912 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
913 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
914 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
915 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
917 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
918 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
919 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
920 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
921 number of stack frames.
923 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
924 active in the current continuation
926 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
927 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
928 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
929 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
931 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
933 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
935 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
936 through to the expanded code
938 This should result in better backtraces.
940 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
942 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
944 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
946 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
947 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
950 ** New procedure, `define!'
952 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
953 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
954 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
955 less verbose than `module-define!'.
957 ** All modules have names now
959 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
960 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
961 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
962 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
964 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
966 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
967 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
968 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
969 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
971 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
972 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
973 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
974 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
975 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
976 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
978 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
979 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
980 days of Guile's modules.
982 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
983 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
984 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
985 record accessors appropriately.
987 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
988 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
989 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
991 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
992 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
993 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
995 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
996 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
999 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
1000 namespaces instead of values.
1002 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
1004 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
1005 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
1006 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
1007 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
1009 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
1011 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
1013 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
1015 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
1016 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
1018 ** Modules load within a known environment
1020 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
1021 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
1022 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
1025 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
1027 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
1028 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
1029 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
1031 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
1032 values to the expected number
1034 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
1035 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
1036 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
1038 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
1039 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
1040 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
1041 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
1043 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
1044 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
1045 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
1047 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
1050 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
1052 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
1054 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
1055 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
1056 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
1057 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
1058 the interpreter would proceed.
1060 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
1061 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
1062 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
1063 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
1065 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
1067 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
1068 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
1069 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
1070 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
1071 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
1072 you to contact the Guile developers.
1074 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1076 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1077 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1078 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1080 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1082 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1083 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1086 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1087 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1088 code in question was memoized.
1090 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1091 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1092 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1093 `x432' instead of `x'.
1095 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1096 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1097 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1098 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1100 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1102 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1103 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1104 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1107 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1108 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1109 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1110 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1112 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1114 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1115 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1116 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1117 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1120 (syntax-rules (else)
1121 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1124 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1125 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1126 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1128 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1129 by nonhygienic macros.
1131 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1132 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1135 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1136 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1137 (define-macro (ref x)
1139 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1144 (define-syntax bind-x
1146 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1147 (define-macro (ref x)
1149 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1151 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1152 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1153 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1154 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1155 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1156 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1158 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1160 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1161 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1163 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1164 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1167 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1169 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1170 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1171 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1172 transformer procedures.
1174 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1176 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1177 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1178 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1180 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1182 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1183 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1184 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1185 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1187 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1189 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1190 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1191 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1194 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1196 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1197 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1198 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1199 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1201 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1203 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1204 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1205 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1208 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1209 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1210 documentation for more details.
1212 ** Better pretty-printing
1214 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1215 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1217 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1219 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1220 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1222 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1224 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1225 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1226 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1227 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1228 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1229 addressed by element and not by byte.
1231 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1232 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1233 endianness, as one would expect.
1235 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1236 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1237 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1238 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1241 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1242 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1244 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1245 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1247 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1249 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1251 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1252 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1253 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1255 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1256 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1258 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1260 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1262 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1263 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1265 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1267 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1268 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1271 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1273 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1274 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1276 ** Unicode characters
1278 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1279 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1280 probably be introduced at some point.
1284 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1285 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1286 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1288 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1289 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1290 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1291 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1295 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1297 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1299 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1300 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1301 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1302 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1303 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1306 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1307 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1308 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1310 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1312 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1313 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1314 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1317 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1318 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1319 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1321 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1323 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1325 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1326 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1327 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1328 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1330 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1332 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1333 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1334 Unicode code points.
1336 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1338 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1339 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1340 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1343 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1345 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1346 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1347 and was unmaintained.
1349 ** Compile-time warnings
1351 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1352 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1353 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1354 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1357 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1358 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1359 `#:warnings' as above.
1361 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1362 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1363 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1365 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1367 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1370 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1372 This slightly improves program startup times.
1374 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1376 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1378 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1380 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1381 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1382 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1383 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1385 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1387 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1388 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1389 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1390 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1392 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1393 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1394 implement method combinations.
1396 ** Applicable struct support
1398 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1399 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1400 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1401 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1402 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1403 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1404 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1405 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1409 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1410 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1411 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1412 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1413 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1415 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1417 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1418 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1419 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1420 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1422 ** eqv? not a generic
1424 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1425 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1426 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1427 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1429 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1431 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1432 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1433 functions are deprecated.
1435 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1437 See "File System" in the manual.
1439 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1441 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1442 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1443 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1445 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1447 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1448 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1449 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1451 ** Fast bit operations.
1453 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1454 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1455 it's for number crunching too.
1457 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1459 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1460 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1461 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1462 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1464 ** R6RS block comment support
1466 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1467 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1469 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1471 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1472 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1474 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1475 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1476 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1478 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1479 ;; separate compilation phase.
1480 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1482 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1484 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1486 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1488 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1489 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1490 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1491 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1492 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1495 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1496 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1497 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1498 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1499 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1501 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1503 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1505 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1507 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1509 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1511 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1513 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1514 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1515 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1517 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1519 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1520 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1522 ** New readline history functions
1524 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1525 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1526 History library functions.
1528 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1529 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1531 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1534 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1536 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1537 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1538 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1539 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1540 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1541 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1542 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1544 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1545 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1547 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1548 `before-signal-stack'.
1550 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1551 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1552 a deprecation warning.
1554 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1556 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1557 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1558 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1559 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1562 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1564 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1565 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1566 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1567 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1569 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1570 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1572 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1574 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1575 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1576 left in the default environment.
1578 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1580 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1581 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1582 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1583 information for the error.
1585 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1587 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1588 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1589 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1591 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1593 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1594 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1596 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1598 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1601 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1603 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1605 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1608 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1610 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1611 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1613 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1615 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1618 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1620 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1621 on their replacements.
1623 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1625 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1626 should use Guile with Emacs.
1628 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1630 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1631 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1632 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1633 `with-throw-handler'.
1635 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1637 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1638 and is no longer used.
1640 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1642 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1643 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1644 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!',
1646 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
1647 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
1649 ** Add support for unbound fluids
1651 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
1654 ** Add `variable-unset!'
1656 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
1658 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1660 * Changes to the C interface
1662 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1664 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1665 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1666 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1668 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1669 code easier and less error-prone.
1671 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1673 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1674 ASCII-encoded strings.
1676 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1678 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1681 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1683 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1684 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1685 available to C. Have fun!
1687 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1689 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1691 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1694 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1695 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1697 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1699 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1700 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1701 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1704 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1706 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1707 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1708 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1709 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1712 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1714 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1715 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1716 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1717 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1718 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1719 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1721 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1722 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1723 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1724 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1725 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1726 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1728 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1729 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1730 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1731 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1732 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1734 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1735 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1736 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1737 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1738 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1739 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1741 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1742 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1743 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1744 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1747 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1748 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1751 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1753 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1754 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1755 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1756 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1757 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1759 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1761 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1762 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1764 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1766 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1767 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1769 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1771 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1772 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1774 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1776 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1777 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1778 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1779 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1780 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1783 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1785 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1786 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1787 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1788 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1791 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1792 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1793 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1794 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1796 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1798 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1799 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1800 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1803 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1804 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1805 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1806 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1808 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1810 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1812 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1814 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1817 ** Inline vector allocation
1819 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1820 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1821 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1822 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1825 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1827 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1828 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1832 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1833 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1834 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1835 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1836 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1838 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1840 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1841 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1842 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1843 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1844 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1845 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1849 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1850 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1851 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1852 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1854 ** Deprecate trampolines
1856 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1857 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1858 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1859 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1860 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1862 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1864 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1866 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1868 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1869 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1870 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1871 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1873 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1875 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1876 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1877 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1878 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1879 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1880 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1881 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1883 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1885 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1886 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1889 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1890 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1892 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1894 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1895 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1897 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1899 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1900 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1901 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1902 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1904 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1906 * Changes to the distribution
1908 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1910 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1911 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1916 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1917 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1919 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1921 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1922 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1924 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1926 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1927 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1928 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1931 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1933 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1934 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1936 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1938 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1939 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1941 ** Parallel installability fixes
1943 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1944 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1945 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1947 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1948 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1949 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1952 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1954 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1955 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1956 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1957 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1958 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1960 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1962 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1963 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1964 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1965 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1966 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1967 searched before the global site directory.
1969 ** New dependency: libgc
1971 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1973 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1975 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1976 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1978 ** New dependency: libffi
1980 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1984 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1988 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1989 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1990 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1993 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1995 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1997 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
2001 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
2002 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
2003 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
2004 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
2005 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
2006 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
2007 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
2008 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
2009 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
2010 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
2011 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
2013 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
2015 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
2016 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
2017 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
2020 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
2023 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
2025 * New features (see the manual for details)
2027 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
2029 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
2031 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
2032 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
2033 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
2035 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
2037 * Changes to the distribution
2039 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
2041 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
2042 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
2044 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
2046 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
2047 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
2052 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
2053 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
2054 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
2055 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
2056 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
2057 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
2058 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
2059 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
2060 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
2061 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
2062 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
2063 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
2064 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
2065 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
2067 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
2068 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
2069 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
2070 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
2071 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2074 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2076 * Infrastructure changes
2078 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2080 The new repository can be accessed using
2081 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2082 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2084 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2086 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2088 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2092 * New features (see the manual for details)
2094 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2095 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2096 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2098 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2099 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2100 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2101 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2103 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2105 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2106 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2107 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2111 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2112 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2114 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2115 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2117 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2118 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2120 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2121 lead to a stack overflow.
2123 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2124 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2125 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2126 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2127 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2128 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2129 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2130 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2131 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2132 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2133 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2134 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2135 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2136 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2137 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2138 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2141 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2145 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2146 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2147 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2148 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2149 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2150 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2151 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2152 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2153 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2154 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2155 system and library calls.
2156 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2157 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2158 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2159 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2160 uniform vectors on AIX.
2161 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2162 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2163 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2164 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2165 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2167 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2171 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2173 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2175 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2176 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2178 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2180 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2182 * Changes to the distribution
2184 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2186 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2187 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2188 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2190 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2192 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2195 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2197 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2204 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2205 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2206 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2207 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2208 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2209 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2210 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2212 * Implementation improvements
2214 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2215 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2218 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2220 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2222 ** set-program-arguments
2225 * Incompatible changes
2227 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2229 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2230 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2231 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2232 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2237 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2238 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2239 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2240 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2241 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2242 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2244 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2245 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2246 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2247 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2248 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2249 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2250 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2251 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2252 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2253 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2254 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2255 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2256 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2257 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2258 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2259 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2262 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2264 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2266 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2268 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2269 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2270 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2271 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2272 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2273 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2281 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2283 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2285 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2287 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2289 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2291 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2293 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2294 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2295 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2297 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2299 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2301 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2302 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2304 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2306 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2307 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2309 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2311 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2313 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2315 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2317 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2319 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2321 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2323 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2325 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2327 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2328 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2329 file was on a different device.
2332 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2334 * Changes to the distribution
2336 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2338 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2340 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2342 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2344 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2346 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2349 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2351 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2352 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2353 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2354 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2355 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2356 items like the versioned share directory name
2357 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2359 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2360 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2361 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2362 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2363 with each micro release during a stable series.
2365 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2367 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2368 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2369 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2370 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2371 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2374 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2375 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2376 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2377 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2380 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2381 in which case "null" threads are used.
2383 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2384 "Blocking", and others.
2386 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2388 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2390 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2391 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2392 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2393 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2394 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2396 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2397 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2399 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2401 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2402 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2404 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2407 This SRFI is always available.
2409 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2411 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2412 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2413 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2414 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2417 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2419 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2420 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2421 parameters without currying.
2423 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2425 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2426 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2428 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2429 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2432 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2433 with a renaming import, for example.
2435 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2437 The official version is good enough now.
2439 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2441 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2442 provided. Use 'make html'.
2444 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2446 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2447 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2448 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2449 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2451 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2453 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2456 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2458 ** New command line option `-L'.
2460 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2462 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2464 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2465 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2467 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2469 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2470 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2472 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2474 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2475 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2478 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2481 (define-module (demo)
2485 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2488 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2490 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2492 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2493 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2494 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2496 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2498 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2499 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2501 ** New function hashx-remove!
2503 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2505 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2506 barriers and dynamic states.
2508 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2509 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2510 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2513 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2514 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2515 Barriers" in the manual.
2517 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2518 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2520 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2522 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2523 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2524 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2525 variable %load-path.
2527 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2529 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2530 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2532 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2533 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2534 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2536 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2537 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2539 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2540 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2541 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2543 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2544 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2545 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2548 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2549 substrings and read-only strings.
2551 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2552 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2555 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2557 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2566 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2567 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2568 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2570 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2571 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2572 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2573 on an ANSI terminal:
2575 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2576 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2579 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2581 See the manual for details.
2583 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2585 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2588 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2590 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2591 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2592 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2593 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2595 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2596 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2597 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2600 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2602 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2603 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2614 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2618 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2623 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2627 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2631 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2634 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2635 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2636 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2637 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2639 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2640 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2643 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2646 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2650 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2652 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2653 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2654 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2657 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2660 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2662 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2665 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2666 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2669 (define-module (foo)
2674 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2675 has been detected is to
2677 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2678 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2679 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2682 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2685 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2687 to your .guile init file.
2689 ** New define-module option: :replace
2691 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2694 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2695 for the core binding `format'.
2697 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2699 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2700 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2702 (define-module (foo)
2703 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2705 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2708 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2710 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2711 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2712 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2714 ** New function: effective-version
2716 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2717 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2718 to the distribution" above.
2720 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2722 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2723 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2725 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2727 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2728 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2730 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2732 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2733 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2736 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2738 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2740 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2742 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2743 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2744 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2747 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2748 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2749 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2750 'system-async-mark'.
2752 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2753 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2755 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2756 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2757 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2760 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2762 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2763 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2766 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2767 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2769 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2770 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2771 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2772 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2773 level for the current thread.
2775 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2777 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2779 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2780 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2783 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2785 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2787 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2790 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2792 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2795 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2796 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2797 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2799 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2800 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2801 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2802 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2813 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2815 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2818 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2820 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2821 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2822 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2833 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2835 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2836 them is also done exactly, of course:
2841 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2842 for exact arguments.
2844 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2845 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2847 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2849 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2850 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2851 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2853 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2854 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2856 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2858 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2861 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2863 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2864 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2866 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2869 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2870 result when both its arguments are exact.
2872 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2874 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2875 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2876 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2878 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2880 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2881 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2882 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2884 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2887 ** pretty-print has more options.
2889 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2890 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2891 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2893 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2895 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2896 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2897 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2899 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2901 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2902 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2904 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2906 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2907 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2910 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2912 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2913 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2914 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2915 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2916 without the soft port blocking.
2918 ** Deprecated: undefine
2920 There is no replacement for undefine.
2922 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2923 have been discouraged.
2925 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2926 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2927 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2930 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2932 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2934 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2935 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2936 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2937 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2940 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2941 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2942 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2944 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2946 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2947 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2948 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2949 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2950 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2951 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2953 * Changes to the C interface
2955 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2956 take a 'delete' function argument.
2958 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2959 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2961 This is an incompatible change.
2963 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2965 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2966 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2967 --disable-deprecated.
2969 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2971 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2972 Scheme values has been added.
2974 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2975 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2978 - int scm_is_* (...)
2980 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2981 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2983 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2985 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2986 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2989 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2991 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2992 scm_from_int for ints.
2994 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2995 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2996 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2998 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
3000 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
3001 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
3002 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
3005 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
3007 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
3009 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
3011 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
3012 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
3013 following alternatives.
3015 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
3016 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
3017 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
3018 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
3020 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
3021 do the validating for you.
3023 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
3024 have been discouraged.
3026 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
3027 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
3030 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
3032 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
3033 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
3036 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
3038 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
3041 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
3044 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
3046 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
3047 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
3049 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
3050 scm_truncate_number should have.
3052 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
3053 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
3055 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
3058 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
3059 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
3060 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
3062 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
3063 easier to use from C.
3065 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
3066 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
3068 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
3069 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
3070 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
3073 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3074 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3075 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3076 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3079 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3080 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3081 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3082 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3083 and is thus quite efficient.
3085 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3087 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3088 about the character encoding.
3090 Replace according to the following table:
3092 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3093 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3094 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3095 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3096 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3097 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3098 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3099 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3100 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3102 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3103 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3105 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3107 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3108 now also available to C code.
3110 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3112 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3113 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3114 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3116 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3119 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3121 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3122 unceremoniously removed.
3124 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3125 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3126 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3128 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3129 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3130 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3131 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3132 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3133 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3136 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3138 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3139 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3140 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3141 manual for more details.
3143 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3144 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3146 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3147 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3148 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3150 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3152 Migrate according to the following table:
3154 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3155 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3156 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3157 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3158 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3159 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3160 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3162 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3163 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3164 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3165 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3166 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3167 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3168 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3170 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3172 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3173 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3175 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3176 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3177 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3178 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3180 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3182 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3183 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3184 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3186 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3187 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3189 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3190 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3191 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3192 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3194 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3196 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3197 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3198 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3199 prevent a potential memory leak:
3206 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3208 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3209 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3211 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3212 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3219 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3220 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3224 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3226 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3228 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3229 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3230 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3232 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3233 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3235 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3237 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3239 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3240 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3241 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3243 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3244 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3246 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3247 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3248 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3249 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3252 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3254 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3255 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3256 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3258 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3260 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3261 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3263 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3265 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3266 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3268 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3270 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3271 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3272 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3274 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3276 You should not have used them.
3278 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3280 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3281 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3283 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3285 This macro is not intended for public use.
3287 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3289 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3291 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3293 Use scm_is_real instead.
3295 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3297 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3299 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3301 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3302 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3304 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3305 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3307 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3308 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3310 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3312 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3315 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3317 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3318 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3319 to the distribution" above.
3321 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3323 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3324 arguments are now passed directly:
3326 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3328 This is an incompatible change.
3330 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3332 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3333 function in the init section.
3335 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3337 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3339 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3340 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3341 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3342 stays roughly constant.
3344 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3345 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3346 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3347 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3348 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3351 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3352 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3353 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3354 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3356 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3357 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3358 objects for every type.
3361 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3363 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3365 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3367 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3368 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3369 initializes a new cell (see below).
3371 ** New functions for memory management
3373 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3374 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3375 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3376 cause aborts in long running programs.
3378 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3379 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3381 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3382 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3383 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3384 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3385 details and for upgrading instructions.
3387 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3388 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3389 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3391 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3393 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3394 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3395 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3396 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3397 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3399 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3400 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3401 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3403 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3404 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3406 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3408 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3409 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3410 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3411 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3412 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3414 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3416 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3419 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3421 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3423 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3425 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3426 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3428 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3430 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3431 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3433 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3434 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3436 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3438 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3440 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3441 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3442 blocking it is not well defined.
3444 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3446 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3447 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3448 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3449 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3450 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3451 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3452 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3453 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3454 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3455 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3456 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3457 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3458 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3459 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3460 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3461 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3462 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3463 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3464 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3465 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3466 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3467 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3468 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3469 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3470 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3471 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3472 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3473 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3474 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3475 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3476 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3478 * Changes to bundled modules
3482 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3483 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3484 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3485 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3486 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3489 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3491 * Changes to the distribution
3493 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3495 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3497 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3498 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3499 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3500 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3501 indicate major changes in Guile.
3503 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3504 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3505 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3506 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3508 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3509 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3510 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3511 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3512 micro version number.
3514 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3516 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3518 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3519 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3521 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3523 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3524 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3525 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3527 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3529 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3530 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3531 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3534 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3536 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3539 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3541 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3542 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3544 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3546 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3547 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3550 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3552 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3555 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3558 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3560 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3562 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3563 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3564 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3566 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3568 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3570 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3573 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3575 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3577 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3579 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3580 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3581 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3583 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3585 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3587 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3588 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3597 See README there for more info.
3599 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3600 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3603 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3605 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3607 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3609 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3610 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3611 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3613 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3615 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3616 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3617 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3619 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3620 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3622 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3625 (oop goops describe)
3627 (oop goops active-slot)
3628 (oop goops composite-slot)
3630 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3631 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3632 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3634 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3636 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3637 in the default environment:
3639 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3640 %read-line write-line
3642 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3643 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3645 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3647 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3650 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3651 can be used for similar functionality.
3653 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3655 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3656 it defines two procedures:
3658 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3660 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3661 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3662 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3665 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3667 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3668 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3669 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3670 write large strings.
3672 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3674 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3675 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3677 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3679 for complete documentation.
3681 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3683 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3684 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3685 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3686 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3688 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3689 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3693 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3694 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3695 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3698 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3701 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3702 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3704 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3705 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3708 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3711 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3713 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3715 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3717 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3719 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3720 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3721 Scheme programs easier.
3723 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3724 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3725 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3726 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3727 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3730 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3731 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3733 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3736 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3738 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3739 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3740 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3743 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3745 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3747 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3748 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3749 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3750 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3751 was also ASCII, for example.
3753 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3755 tag - no replacement.
3756 fseek - replaced by seek.
3757 list* - replaced by cons*.
3759 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3763 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3764 (define m (make-safe-module))
3765 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3766 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3767 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3769 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3771 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3772 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3773 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3775 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3777 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3778 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3779 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3780 from the issues related to the module system.
3782 *** New function: load-extension
3784 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3786 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3788 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3789 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3790 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3792 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3794 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3795 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3796 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3797 support dynamic linking).
3799 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3801 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3802 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3803 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3804 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3807 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3808 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3809 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3810 library and initialize it explicitly.
3812 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3813 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3815 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3817 (define-module (foo bar))
3819 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3821 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3823 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3824 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3826 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3827 (null-environment 5)
3828 (interaction-environment)
3834 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3836 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3837 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3838 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3839 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3841 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3842 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3843 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3844 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3845 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3846 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3847 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3848 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3849 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3850 one eval to the next.
3852 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3853 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3854 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3855 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3856 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3858 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3859 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3860 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3861 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3862 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3863 used in a lexical environment.
3865 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3866 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3867 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3868 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3869 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3870 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3872 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3874 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3875 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3876 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3877 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3878 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3880 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3881 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3882 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3884 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3885 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3887 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3888 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3889 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3891 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3892 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3894 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3895 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3896 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3897 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3900 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3901 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3902 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3903 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3905 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3906 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3907 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3909 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3910 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3911 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3912 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3913 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3915 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3917 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3918 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3919 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3921 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3922 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3923 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3925 See manual for more info.
3927 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3929 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3930 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3931 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3933 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3935 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3936 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3937 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3939 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3940 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3941 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3942 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3944 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3946 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3947 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3949 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3950 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3951 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3952 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3953 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3956 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3957 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3958 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3959 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3960 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3961 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3963 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3964 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3965 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3966 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3967 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3969 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3970 objects are usually permanent.
3972 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3973 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3975 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3977 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3978 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3981 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3985 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3990 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3992 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3993 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3994 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3995 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3997 ** New function `make-object-property'
3999 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
4000 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
4004 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
4005 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
4009 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
4010 source properties eventually.
4012 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
4014 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
4015 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
4016 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
4018 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
4019 will be removed in the next release.
4021 ** New define-module option: pure
4023 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
4028 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
4031 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
4033 Export names NAME1 ...
4035 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
4036 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
4040 (define-module (foo)
4042 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
4045 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
4050 ** New function: object->string OBJ
4052 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
4054 ** New function: port? X
4056 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
4057 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
4059 ** New function: file-port?
4061 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
4063 ** New function: port-for-each proc
4065 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
4066 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
4067 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
4068 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
4069 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
4071 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
4073 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4074 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4075 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4076 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4077 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4080 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4082 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4083 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4084 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4085 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4088 ** New function: crypt password salt
4090 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4093 ** New function: chroot path
4095 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4097 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4099 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4102 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4104 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4106 ** New function: getpass prompt
4108 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4111 ** New function: flock file operation
4113 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4115 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4117 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4120 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4122 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4123 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4124 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4125 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4126 of the temporary file.
4128 ** New function: open-input-string string
4130 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4131 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4132 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4134 ** New function: open-output-string
4136 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4137 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4139 ** New function: get-output-string
4141 Return the contents of an output string port.
4143 ** New function: identity
4145 Return the argument.
4147 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4148 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4150 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4152 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4153 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4154 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4157 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4158 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4160 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4162 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4163 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4164 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4167 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4168 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4169 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4173 Use `identity' instead.
4179 ** Deprecated: return-it
4183 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4185 Use `string-length' instead.
4187 ** Deprecated: flags
4189 Use `logior' instead.
4191 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4193 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4194 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4195 port-for-each is more flexible.
4197 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4198 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4199 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4201 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4203 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4205 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4207 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4209 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4211 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4212 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4214 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4215 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4217 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4218 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4220 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4222 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4223 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4225 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4226 Use module system operations for all variables.
4228 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4230 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4233 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4235 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4236 The following bugs have been fixed:
4238 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4239 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4242 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4243 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4244 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4246 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4247 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4249 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4250 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4253 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4254 The expansion used to be like so:
4256 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4258 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4260 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4262 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4263 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4265 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4267 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4268 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4269 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4273 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4274 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4276 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4281 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4282 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4284 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4285 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4286 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4288 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4291 * Changes to the C interface
4293 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4295 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4296 with "_t". What a concept.
4298 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4300 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4302 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4306 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4307 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4309 *** C Functions removed
4311 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4312 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4313 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4314 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4315 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4316 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4317 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4319 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4321 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4323 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4325 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4327 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4328 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4330 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4332 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4335 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4337 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4339 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4341 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4342 Evaluation" in the manual.
4344 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4346 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4347 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4349 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4351 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4352 Constructors" in the manual.
4354 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4356 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4357 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4359 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4361 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4363 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4364 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4365 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4367 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4369 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4371 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4372 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4373 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4376 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4378 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4380 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4381 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4383 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4385 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4386 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4387 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4388 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4390 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4391 scm_primitive_property_ref
4392 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4393 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4395 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4396 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4398 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4400 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4401 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4402 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4403 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4405 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4407 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4408 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4409 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4410 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4411 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4412 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4413 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4415 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4416 scm_remember_upto_here
4418 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4420 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4422 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4423 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4425 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4427 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4429 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4431 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4433 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4435 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4436 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4437 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4438 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4439 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4440 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4442 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4444 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4446 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4447 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4448 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4450 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4452 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4453 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4454 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4456 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4458 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4459 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4462 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4465 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4466 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4469 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4471 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4473 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4475 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4477 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4479 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4481 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4482 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4483 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4484 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4485 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4486 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4487 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4488 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4489 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4490 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4491 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4492 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4493 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4494 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4495 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4497 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4498 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4499 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4500 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4501 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4502 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4503 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4504 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4505 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4506 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4507 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4508 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4509 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4510 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4511 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4512 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4513 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4514 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4515 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4516 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4517 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4518 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4519 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4520 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4521 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4522 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4523 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4524 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4525 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4527 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4529 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4531 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4532 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4534 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4536 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4538 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4540 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4542 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4544 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4546 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4548 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4550 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4553 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4554 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4556 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4558 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4560 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4562 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4564 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4566 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4568 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4570 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4573 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4575 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4577 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4579 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4580 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4582 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4583 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4585 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4587 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4588 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4589 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4591 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4593 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4595 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4596 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4598 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4599 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4600 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4601 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4603 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4604 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4605 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4607 Use the new ones from above instead.
4609 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4611 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4612 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4613 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4615 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4616 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4618 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4619 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4622 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4623 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4625 Use the new functions instead.
4627 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4630 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4632 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4634 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4637 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4639 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4642 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4644 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4647 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4648 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4649 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4651 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4653 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4654 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4656 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4657 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4658 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4659 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4662 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4664 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4665 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4666 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4667 inexact for an exact.
4669 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4670 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4671 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4674 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4675 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4676 accept an inexact argument.
4678 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4679 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4681 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4684 ** New number validation macros:
4685 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4689 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4691 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4692 scm_unprotect_object.
4694 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4696 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4698 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4701 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4703 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4707 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4709 * Changes to the distribution
4711 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4713 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4714 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4715 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4716 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4717 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4718 obtain these programs.
4719 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4720 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4722 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4723 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4724 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4725 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4726 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4728 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4729 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4730 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4731 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4735 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4738 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4739 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4740 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4741 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4743 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4745 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4747 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4748 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4750 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4751 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4753 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4754 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4756 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4757 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4758 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4759 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4761 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4763 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4767 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4768 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4770 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4772 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4773 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4775 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4776 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4777 number of objects of that kind.
4779 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4781 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4782 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4783 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4784 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4785 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4787 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4789 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4791 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4793 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4796 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4798 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4800 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4802 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4804 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4806 ** New command line option --debug
4808 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4810 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4812 ** New help facility
4814 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4815 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4816 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4817 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4818 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4819 (help) gives this text
4821 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4822 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4824 Examples: (help help)
4826 (help "output-string")
4828 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4830 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4832 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4833 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4836 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4837 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4838 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4841 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4842 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4843 use absolute filenames when possible.
4845 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4846 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4847 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4850 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4852 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4853 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4854 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4855 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4857 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4859 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4861 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4862 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4863 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4865 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4866 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4867 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4869 (read-enable 'positions)
4870 (debug-enable 'debug)
4872 ** Backtraces in scripts
4874 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4878 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4880 at the top of the script.
4882 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4883 The second enables backtraces.)
4885 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4887 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4888 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4889 substantially faster than before.
4891 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4892 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4894 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4895 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4897 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4899 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4900 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4901 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4903 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4904 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4905 when this hook is run in the future.
4907 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4908 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4910 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4912 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4913 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4916 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4917 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4918 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4920 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4921 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4923 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4924 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4926 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4927 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4928 in order not to need further allocation.)
4930 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4933 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4934 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4935 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4936 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4938 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4940 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4943 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4945 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4948 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4949 GC in percent of total heap size
4952 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4953 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4955 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4957 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4958 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4960 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4962 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4963 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4965 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4967 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4968 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4972 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4973 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4975 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4977 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4979 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4981 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4983 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4985 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4986 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4988 (simple-format port message . args)
4989 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4990 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4991 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4992 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4993 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4994 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4995 Does not add a trailing newline."
4997 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4999 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
5000 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
5002 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
5003 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
5005 ** Deprecated: list*
5007 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
5009 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
5011 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
5012 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
5014 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
5015 is returned as result.
5017 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
5019 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
5021 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
5023 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
5024 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
5027 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
5029 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
5031 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
5032 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
5034 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5036 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
5038 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
5040 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5042 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
5044 Thanks to Greg Badros!
5046 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5048 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5049 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
5050 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
5052 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
5055 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
5057 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
5058 the readability of argument checking.
5060 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
5062 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
5064 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
5066 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
5067 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
5068 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
5069 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
5070 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
5071 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
5072 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5074 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5076 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5078 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5079 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5081 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5083 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5084 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5087 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5089 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5090 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5091 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5093 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5094 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5095 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5097 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5098 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5099 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5100 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5101 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5102 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5103 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5105 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5106 scm_end_input (object);
5107 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5108 ptob->flush (object);
5110 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5111 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5114 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5116 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5118 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5119 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5120 removed in a future version.
5122 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5124 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5125 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5126 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5127 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5129 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5130 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5132 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5135 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5137 in your configure.in.
5139 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5144 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5150 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5152 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5156 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5157 (define make-message string-append)
5159 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5161 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5165 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5170 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5174 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5176 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5177 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5179 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5181 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5182 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5183 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5184 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5185 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5186 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5188 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5189 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5190 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5192 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5193 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5194 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5197 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5198 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5199 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5200 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5201 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5203 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5204 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5205 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5206 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5207 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5208 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5209 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5211 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5213 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5214 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5215 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5217 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5218 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5219 KEY in the calling thread.
5221 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5222 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5223 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5224 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5225 associated with the key.
5227 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5229 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5230 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5232 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5234 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5235 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5236 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5238 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5240 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5241 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5243 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5245 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5247 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5248 returned is undefined.
5250 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5251 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5252 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5254 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5255 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5256 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5258 ** New C level GC hooks
5260 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5262 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5265 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5266 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5267 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5269 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5270 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5271 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5273 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5274 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5277 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5279 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5280 allocation parameters
5282 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5283 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5284 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5288 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5289 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5290 scm_default_max_segment_size
5292 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5294 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5295 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5297 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5299 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5300 object and count on the object being protected until
5301 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5303 The functions also have better time complexity.
5305 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5306 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5307 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5308 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5309 are no longer needed.
5311 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5313 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5314 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5315 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5316 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5318 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5320 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5322 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5324 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5325 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5326 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5327 until this issue has been settled.
5329 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5331 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5333 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5336 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5338 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5340 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5341 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5342 descriptors were checked.
5344 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5345 atomically written to a pipe.
5347 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5348 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5349 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5350 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5351 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5352 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5353 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5356 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5357 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5358 is changed without calling tzset.
5360 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5362 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5363 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5364 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5366 (define write-network-long
5367 (lambda (value port)
5368 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5369 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5370 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5372 (define read-network-long
5374 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5375 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5376 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5378 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5379 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5381 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5382 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5383 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5384 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5386 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5387 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5388 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5389 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5393 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5395 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5399 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5400 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5401 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5407 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5408 for a description of available commands.
5410 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5411 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5412 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5414 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5416 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5417 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5419 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5421 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5423 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5424 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5425 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5426 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5427 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5428 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5431 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5433 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5434 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5435 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5436 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5438 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5439 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5441 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5443 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5445 ** Readline support has changed again.
5447 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5448 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5449 to activate readline is now
5451 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5454 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5456 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5457 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5458 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5461 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5462 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5463 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5466 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5467 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5468 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5469 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5470 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5471 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5473 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5474 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5476 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5478 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5479 object it receives is the same string passed to
5480 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5481 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5482 string, not the suffix.
5484 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5485 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5486 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5488 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5490 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5491 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5492 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5493 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5496 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5498 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5500 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5501 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5502 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5503 appear from left to right.
5505 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5508 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5510 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5511 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5513 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5517 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5519 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5521 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5523 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5524 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5525 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5527 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5529 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5531 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5533 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5536 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5538 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5539 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5540 mentioning it here anyway.
5542 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5544 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5545 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5546 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5547 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5550 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5552 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5554 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5556 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5557 otherwise return #f.
5559 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5561 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5562 returned by `opendir'.
5564 ** New function: using-readline?
5566 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5568 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5570 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5571 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5573 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5575 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5577 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5578 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5579 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5581 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5583 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5584 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5586 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5588 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5589 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5590 documentation slots are not yet used.
5592 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5594 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5595 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5596 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5601 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5602 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5603 (string-append x y))
5605 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5606 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5608 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5609 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5610 be made in a clean way.]
5612 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5614 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5616 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5618 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5619 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5621 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5623 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5625 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5627 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5629 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5630 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5631 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5632 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5635 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5637 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5639 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5641 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5643 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5644 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5646 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5648 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5650 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5652 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5654 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5655 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5656 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5657 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5658 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5659 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5661 This should not make any difference for most users.
5663 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5665 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5666 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5668 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5670 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5671 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5672 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5673 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5674 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5676 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5678 It is now replaced by:
5680 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5682 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5683 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5685 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5687 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5688 This might change when we get the new module system.
5690 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5694 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5696 * Changes to mailing lists
5698 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5700 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5703 * Changes to the distribution
5705 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5707 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5708 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5709 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5710 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5711 you explicitly specify it.
5713 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5714 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5715 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5716 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5717 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5720 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5721 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5722 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5723 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5725 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5726 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5727 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5730 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5732 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5735 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5737 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5739 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5740 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5741 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5742 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5744 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5745 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5748 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5750 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5751 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5752 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5753 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5754 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5755 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5756 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5757 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5769 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5770 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5771 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5772 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5773 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5778 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5779 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5787 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5792 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5793 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5796 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5797 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5798 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5799 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5801 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5803 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5805 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5806 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5808 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5810 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5812 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5813 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5815 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5818 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5820 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5822 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5824 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5826 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5828 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5830 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5831 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5832 when the hook was created.
5834 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5835 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5836 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5837 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5838 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5839 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5840 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5841 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5842 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5844 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5845 the dlopen family of functions.
5847 ** New function `provided?'
5849 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5850 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5851 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5852 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5854 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5856 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5857 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5858 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5859 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5862 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5863 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5864 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5865 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5867 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5868 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5869 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5872 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5873 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5874 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5875 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5876 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5877 but with the flag set.
5879 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5881 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5882 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5884 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5885 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5886 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5887 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5888 available Scheme format implementations.
5890 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5891 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5892 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5893 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5894 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5895 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5896 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5897 output is to the current error port if available by the
5898 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5901 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5902 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5903 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5904 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5905 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5906 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5907 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5908 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5910 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5911 be executed at a time.
5914 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5916 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5917 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5918 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5920 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5921 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5922 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5923 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5924 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5925 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5926 general form of a directive is:
5928 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5930 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5932 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5934 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5935 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5936 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5939 Any (print as `display' does).
5943 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5947 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5951 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5957 print number sign always.
5960 print comma separated.
5962 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5968 print number sign always.
5971 print comma separated.
5973 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5979 print number sign always.
5982 print comma separated.
5984 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5990 print number sign always.
5993 print comma separated.
5995 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
6000 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
6004 print a number as a Roman numeral.
6007 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
6010 print a number as an ordinal English number.
6013 print a number as a cardinal English number.
6018 prints `y' and `ies'.
6021 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6024 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6029 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
6033 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
6036 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
6037 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
6039 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6042 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
6043 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
6045 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6048 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
6050 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
6052 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6055 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
6057 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
6059 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6062 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
6065 The sign appears before the padding.
6073 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6075 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6080 print N page separators.
6090 newline is ignored, white space left.
6093 newline is left, white space ignored.
6098 relative tabulation.
6104 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6106 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6109 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6111 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6114 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6117 converts by `string-upcase'.
6120 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6122 jumps N arguments forward.
6125 jumps 1 argument backward.
6128 jumps N arguments backward.
6131 jumps to the 0th argument.
6134 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6136 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6137 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6139 take argument from N.
6142 true test conditional.
6145 if-else-then conditional.
6151 default clause follows.
6154 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6156 at most N iterations.
6159 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6162 args from the rest of arguments.
6165 args from the rest args (lists).
6176 aborts if N <= M <= K
6178 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6181 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6184 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6190 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6192 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6194 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6195 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6196 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6197 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6198 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6199 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6203 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6207 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6213 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6216 Print a `#\space' character
6218 print N `#\space' characters.
6221 Print a `#\tab' character
6223 print N `#\tab' characters.
6226 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6227 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6228 must be a positive decimal number.
6231 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6232 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6233 be processed by `read'.
6236 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6237 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6238 be processed by `read'.
6241 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6244 prints format version.
6247 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6248 and format it accordingly.
6250 *** Configuration Variables
6252 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6253 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6254 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6255 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6258 format:symbol-case-conv
6259 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6260 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6261 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6262 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6263 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6265 format:iobj-case-conv
6266 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6267 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6270 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6273 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6279 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6280 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6281 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6282 `format' padding style.
6285 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6286 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6287 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6288 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6292 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6293 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6294 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6297 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6298 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6299 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6300 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6301 parameters or modifiers)).
6304 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6306 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6308 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6309 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6311 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6312 string-downcase! functions.
6314 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6315 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6317 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6320 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6323 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6324 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6326 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6328 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6329 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6331 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6332 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6333 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6334 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6335 would if STRING were input.
6337 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6339 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6340 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6341 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6342 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6345 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6347 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6348 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6351 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6353 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6354 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6356 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6357 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6359 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6360 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6361 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6362 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6364 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6365 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6367 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6368 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6369 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6371 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6372 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6374 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6375 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6376 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6377 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6378 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6380 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6381 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6382 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6383 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6384 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6385 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6387 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6388 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6389 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6392 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6393 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6394 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6395 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6396 the following grammar:
6397 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6398 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6399 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6400 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6401 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6402 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6403 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6404 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6405 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6406 last option in its combination)
6408 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6409 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6410 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6411 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6413 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6414 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6415 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6417 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6418 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6419 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6421 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6422 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6423 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6424 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6425 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6426 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6427 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6428 ordinary argument strings.
6430 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6431 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6432 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6433 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6435 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6436 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6438 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6439 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6440 - a required option is omitted
6441 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6442 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6443 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6444 - an option predicate fails
6449 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6452 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6453 (verbose (required? #f)
6456 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6457 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6458 (predicate ,string?))))
6460 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6461 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6463 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6464 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6465 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6466 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6469 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6471 It will be removed in a few releases.
6473 ** New syntax: lambda*
6474 ** New syntax: define*
6475 ** New syntax: define*-public
6476 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6477 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6478 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6480 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6481 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6482 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6483 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6484 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6486 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6487 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6488 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6490 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6492 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6493 and examples for `lambda*':
6496 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6498 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6499 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6500 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6501 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6502 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6503 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6504 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6505 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6507 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6509 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6510 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6511 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6512 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6514 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6515 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6516 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6517 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6518 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6519 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6520 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6521 and until the procedure is called.
6523 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6525 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6526 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6527 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6528 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6529 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6530 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6531 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6532 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6533 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6534 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6536 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6537 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6538 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6539 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6542 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6544 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6545 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6546 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6547 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6549 ** New syntax: and-let*
6550 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6552 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6553 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6554 (<variable> <expression>)
6557 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6558 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6559 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6562 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6563 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6564 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6565 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6566 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6567 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6568 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6570 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6571 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6572 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6573 shadow earlier bindings.
6575 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6577 ** New sorting functions
6579 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6580 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6581 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6582 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6584 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6585 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6588 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6589 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6590 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6592 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6593 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6594 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6595 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6597 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6598 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6599 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6600 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6601 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6604 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6605 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6606 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6607 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6608 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6609 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6611 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6612 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6613 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6615 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6616 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6617 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6620 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6621 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6622 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6624 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6625 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6627 ** New built-in random number support
6629 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6630 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6631 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6632 returned have a uniform distribution.
6634 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6635 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6636 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6637 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6638 effect of the `random' operation.
6640 *** New variable: *random-state*
6641 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6642 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6643 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6644 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6645 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6648 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6649 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6650 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6651 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6652 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6654 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6655 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6656 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6657 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6658 initialized using SEED.
6660 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6661 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6662 range between 0 and 1.
6664 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6665 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6666 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6667 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6668 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6669 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6670 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6672 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6673 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6674 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6675 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6676 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6677 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6679 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6680 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6681 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6682 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6684 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6685 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6686 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6687 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6689 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6690 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6691 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6693 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6695 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6698 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6699 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6702 ** New function: make-guardian
6703 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6704 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6705 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6706 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6707 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6709 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6710 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6711 one object if at all.
6713 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6714 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6715 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6717 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6718 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6719 read again in last-in first-out order.
6721 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6722 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6724 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6726 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6727 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6728 file position is used.
6730 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6731 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6732 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6734 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6735 redefined using seek.
6737 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6738 size is not supplied.
6740 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6741 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6743 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6744 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6746 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6748 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6749 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6750 and returns the contents as a single string.
6752 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6753 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6754 lists in serial order.
6756 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6757 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6758 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6760 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6761 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6762 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6763 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6765 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6766 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6767 and #f if an error occured.
6769 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6771 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6772 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6773 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6774 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6776 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6778 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6781 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6783 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6786 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6790 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6791 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6793 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6794 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6798 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6800 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6802 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6803 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6805 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6807 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6808 might change when we get the new module system.
6810 ** The smob interface
6812 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6813 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6815 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6817 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6821 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6822 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6823 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6824 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6825 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6826 will be freed by the default free function.
6828 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6829 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6830 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6831 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6833 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6834 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6835 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6836 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6838 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6840 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6841 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6845 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6846 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6847 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6849 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6850 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6851 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6852 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6854 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6855 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6856 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6858 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6859 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6860 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6861 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6863 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6864 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6865 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6867 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6871 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6873 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6874 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6875 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6877 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6878 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6879 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6881 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6882 a string port's buffer.
6884 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6885 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6886 function pointers which together define the current random number
6887 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6888 number library functions.
6890 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6893 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6894 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6897 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6898 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6900 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6901 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6903 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6904 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6907 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6908 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6909 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6910 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6912 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6913 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6914 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6915 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6916 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6917 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6918 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6920 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6921 by libguile and the application.
6923 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6924 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6925 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6926 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6928 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6929 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6931 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6932 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6933 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6935 ** Random number library functions
6936 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6937 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6938 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6940 The default random state is stored in:
6942 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6943 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6944 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6949 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6951 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6952 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6953 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6954 isn't a random state.
6956 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6957 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6959 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6960 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6961 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6962 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6964 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6965 Return 32 random bits.
6967 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6968 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6970 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6971 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6973 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6974 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6976 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6977 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6979 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6980 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6981 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6985 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6987 * Changes to the distribution
6989 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6990 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6991 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6994 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6995 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6996 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6998 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6999 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
7000 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
7001 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
7004 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
7005 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
7006 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
7008 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7010 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
7012 *** Function: batch-mode?
7014 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
7017 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
7019 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
7020 case has not been implemented.
7022 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
7023 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
7024 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
7027 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
7028 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
7030 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
7032 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7034 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
7036 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
7037 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
7040 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
7041 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
7042 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
7043 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
7046 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
7048 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
7049 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
7050 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
7051 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
7052 find those libraries.
7054 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
7055 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
7058 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
7060 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
7061 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
7062 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
7063 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
7065 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
7066 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
7067 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
7071 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
7073 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7074 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7075 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7078 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7079 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7080 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7081 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7083 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7084 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7087 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7088 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7089 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7090 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7091 compiler where to find the libraries.
7093 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7094 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7095 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7097 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7098 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7099 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7100 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7101 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7105 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7107 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7108 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7109 internationalization support.
7111 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7112 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7113 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7114 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7115 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7117 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7118 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7119 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7120 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7121 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7123 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7124 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7125 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7126 any GNU mirror site.
7128 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7130 ** New function: add-history STRING
7131 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7132 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7133 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7135 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7137 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7138 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7139 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7142 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7143 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7144 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7146 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7148 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7151 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7152 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7155 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7156 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7157 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7158 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7159 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7160 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7162 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7163 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7164 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7165 of the form mentioned above.
7167 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7168 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7169 returned in the special `rest' list.
7171 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7172 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7174 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7176 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7178 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7180 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7181 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7182 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7183 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7184 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7185 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7186 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7187 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7190 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7192 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7194 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7195 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7198 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7199 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7200 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7204 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7205 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7206 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7207 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7208 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7209 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7210 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7211 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7214 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7216 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7217 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7218 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7220 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7222 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7223 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7225 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7226 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7227 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7229 Why do we have this function?
7230 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7231 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7232 primitive, and display it differently, and
7233 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7234 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7237 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7238 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7241 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7242 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7243 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7244 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7246 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7247 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7250 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7251 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7253 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7255 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7256 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7257 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7258 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7259 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7260 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7261 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7264 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7266 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7267 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7269 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7270 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7271 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7272 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7273 properly continue the print chain.
7275 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7276 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7277 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7278 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7279 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7280 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7281 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7282 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7284 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7285 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7286 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7287 safest to not check for these pairs.
7289 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7290 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7291 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7292 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7294 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7296 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7297 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7299 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7301 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7303 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7304 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7305 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7307 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7308 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7309 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7311 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7312 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7313 the following functions and macros:
7315 Function: make-fluid
7317 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7318 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7319 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7320 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7321 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7323 Function: fluid? OBJ
7325 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7327 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7328 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7330 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7331 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7333 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7335 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7336 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7337 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7338 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7339 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7340 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7341 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7343 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7345 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7346 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7347 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7348 should evaluate to a fluid.
7350 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7352 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7353 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7354 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7355 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7356 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7358 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7361 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7363 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7365 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7367 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7370 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7371 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7372 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7373 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7374 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7377 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7378 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7379 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7381 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7382 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7383 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7385 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7386 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7387 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7388 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7390 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7391 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7392 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7393 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7395 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7396 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7397 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7398 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7400 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7401 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7402 their revealed counts set to zero.
7404 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7405 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7407 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7408 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7410 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7411 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7413 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7414 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7415 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7417 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7418 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7419 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7421 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7422 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7423 default environment inherited by child processes.
7425 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7426 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7427 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7429 The return value is unspecified.
7431 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7432 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7433 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7434 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7435 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7437 The return value is unspecified.
7439 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7440 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7448 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7449 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7452 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7455 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7456 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7457 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7459 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7460 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7461 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7462 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7465 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7466 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7468 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7469 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7470 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7471 the `environ' procedure.
7473 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7474 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7477 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7478 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7480 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7481 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7482 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7483 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7485 *** procedure: times
7486 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7487 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7488 return a selected component:
7491 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7495 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7498 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7502 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7503 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7507 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7508 terminated child processes.
7510 ** Removed: list-length
7511 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7512 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7514 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7516 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7518 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7520 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7521 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7522 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7523 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7525 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7526 extra complexity it introduces.
7528 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7529 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7531 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7532 variable to any non-empty value.
7534 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7535 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7537 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7539 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7540 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7542 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7544 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7545 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7547 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7549 ** vector handling routines
7551 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7552 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7553 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7554 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7555 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7557 ** pair and list routines
7559 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7562 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7564 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7567 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7569 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7571 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7572 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7573 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7574 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7575 site-specific initialization code.
7577 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7578 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7579 initialization processes.
7581 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7582 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7583 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7584 initialized properly.
7586 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7587 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7588 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7590 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7591 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7592 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7593 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7594 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7596 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7598 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7599 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7600 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7601 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7602 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7604 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7605 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7606 which look like this:
7609 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7611 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7612 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7615 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7616 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7619 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7621 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7622 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7623 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7625 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7626 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7627 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7628 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7629 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7631 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7632 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7634 int (*free) (SCM port);
7635 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7636 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7637 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7641 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7642 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7643 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7645 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7648 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7649 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7650 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7652 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7653 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7654 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7657 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7661 struct timeval *timeout);
7663 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7664 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7665 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7666 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7667 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7668 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7670 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7671 scm_catch_body_t body,
7673 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7676 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7677 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7678 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7679 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7680 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7681 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7683 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7685 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7688 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7689 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7690 spawning threads from application C code.
7692 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7693 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7694 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7695 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7696 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7697 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7699 ** Removed functions:
7701 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7702 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7704 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7706 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7707 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7709 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7711 ** mbstrings are now removed
7713 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7714 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7716 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7718 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7719 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7720 their new names and arguments:
7722 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7723 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7724 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7725 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7728 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7730 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7732 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7735 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7737 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7738 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7739 pass a #f arg to catch.
7741 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7743 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7744 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7747 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7748 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7749 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7750 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7751 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7752 reclaim its storage.
7754 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7755 worrying that some other function you call will call
7756 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7757 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7758 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7759 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7762 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7764 * Changes to the distribution
7766 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7767 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7770 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7771 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7773 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7774 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7776 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7778 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7779 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7780 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7782 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7784 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7785 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7786 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7787 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7788 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7789 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7791 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7792 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7793 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7796 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7797 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7798 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7799 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7801 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7802 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7803 libraries to your link command:
7805 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7806 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7807 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7808 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7810 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7811 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7812 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7814 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7816 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7817 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7820 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7822 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7823 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7824 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7825 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7826 searched is system dependent.
7828 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7830 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7832 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7834 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7835 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7837 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7839 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7840 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7841 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7842 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7843 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7846 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7848 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7849 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7850 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7851 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7852 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7854 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7856 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7857 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7859 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7861 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7862 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7863 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7866 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7868 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7869 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7870 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7871 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7873 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7874 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7876 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7878 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7879 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7881 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7883 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7884 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7892 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7894 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7895 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7896 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7897 a more informative way.
7899 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7900 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7901 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7902 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7903 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7904 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7906 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7907 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7910 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7911 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7912 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7915 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7916 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7917 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7918 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7919 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7920 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7922 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7923 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7924 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7925 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7928 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7929 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7930 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7931 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7932 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7933 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7935 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7936 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7937 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7938 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7939 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7941 *** regexp functions
7943 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7944 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7945 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7947 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7948 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7949 with SCSH regular expressions.
7951 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7952 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7953 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7954 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7956 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7957 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7958 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7959 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7961 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7962 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7963 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7964 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7965 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7966 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7968 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7969 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7970 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7971 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7972 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7974 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7976 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7977 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7978 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7979 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7981 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7982 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7983 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7985 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7986 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7988 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7991 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7992 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7993 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7995 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7996 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7997 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7999 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
8000 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
8001 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
8002 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
8003 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
8006 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8008 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
8009 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
8010 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
8011 used when different portions of a string are passed to
8012 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
8013 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
8015 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
8016 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
8017 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
8019 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
8020 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
8023 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
8024 and replace them with the contents of another string.
8026 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
8027 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
8028 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
8029 may be one of the following arguments:
8031 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
8033 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
8035 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
8036 the regexp match is written.
8038 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
8039 following the regexp match is written.
8041 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
8042 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
8045 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
8046 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
8047 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
8048 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
8049 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
8050 which should be matched against this regular expression.
8052 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
8055 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
8056 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
8057 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
8058 written out to PORT.
8060 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
8061 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
8062 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
8063 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
8064 will return after processing a single match.
8066 *** Match Structures
8068 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
8069 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
8070 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
8071 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
8072 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
8073 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8076 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8077 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8078 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8079 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8080 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8082 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8083 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8084 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8086 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8087 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8088 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8089 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8090 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8092 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8093 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8095 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8096 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8098 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8099 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8101 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8102 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8104 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8105 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8106 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8107 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8109 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8110 Return the original TARGET string.
8112 *** Backslash Escapes
8114 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8115 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8116 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8117 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8118 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8119 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8121 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8122 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8123 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8124 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8125 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8126 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8127 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8128 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8130 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8131 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8132 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8133 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8134 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8135 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8136 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8138 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8139 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8140 return the resulting string.
8142 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8143 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8144 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8145 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8146 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8147 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8148 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8149 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8150 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8151 translated to the single character `*'.
8153 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8154 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8155 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8156 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8157 consecutive backslashes:
8159 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8161 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8162 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8163 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8165 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8166 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8167 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8168 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8169 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8170 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8172 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8174 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8175 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8176 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8177 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8178 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8179 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8180 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8181 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8182 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8183 cumbersome escape syntax.
8185 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8187 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8189 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8191 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8194 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8196 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8198 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8201 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8202 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8203 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8204 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8205 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8207 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8208 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8209 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8210 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8211 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8212 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8213 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8216 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8217 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8218 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8221 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8222 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8224 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8225 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8226 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8227 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8228 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8229 installed, you can say:
8231 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8234 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8236 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8237 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8238 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8239 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8240 new dynamic roots and threads.
8243 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8245 * Changes to the distribution.
8247 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8249 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8250 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8251 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8252 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8253 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8254 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8255 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8256 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8258 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8261 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8262 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8267 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8269 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8270 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8272 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8273 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8274 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8275 the (command-line) function.
8276 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8277 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8278 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8280 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8281 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8282 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8283 command line arguments
8284 -ds do -s script at this point
8285 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8286 -h, --help display this help and exit
8287 -v, --version display version information and exit
8288 \ read arguments from following script lines
8290 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8291 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8293 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8296 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8300 (main (command-line))
8302 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8304 ekko a speckled gecko
8306 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8307 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8308 following list of command-line arguments:
8310 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8312 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8313 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8314 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8315 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8316 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8318 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8320 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8322 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8323 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8326 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8327 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8328 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8329 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8331 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8332 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8333 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8334 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8336 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8340 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8344 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8346 ekko a speckled gecko
8348 Unix expands this into
8350 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8352 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8353 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8355 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8357 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8358 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8360 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8361 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8362 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8363 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8364 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8365 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8366 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8367 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8368 it only terminates the argument list.)
8369 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8370 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8371 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8372 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8373 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8374 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8375 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8376 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8378 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8380 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8381 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8382 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8383 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8384 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8386 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8387 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8388 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8390 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8392 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8393 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8394 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8395 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8398 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8399 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8400 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8402 * Changes to Scheme functions
8404 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8405 and disabled by default.
8407 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8408 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8409 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8410 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8412 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8414 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8416 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8417 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8419 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8420 (read-set! keywords #f)
8422 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8423 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8424 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8427 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8428 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8429 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8432 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8433 support for Scheme functions.
8435 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8436 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8437 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8438 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8441 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8442 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8443 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8446 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8447 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8448 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8451 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8452 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8453 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8454 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8455 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8456 display the result as a prompt.
8457 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8459 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8460 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8461 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8464 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8465 procedure of zero arguments.
8467 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8468 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8469 argument is bound in the current module.
8471 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8472 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8473 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8474 public bindings into the current module.
8476 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8477 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8479 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8480 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8482 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8483 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8485 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8486 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8488 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8489 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8491 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8492 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8493 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8494 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8495 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8497 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8498 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8499 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8500 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8502 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8505 ** Changes to I/O functions
8507 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8508 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8509 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8511 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8512 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8513 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8515 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8516 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8518 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8519 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8520 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8521 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8523 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8525 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8526 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8528 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8529 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8530 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8531 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8532 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8535 'trim omit delimiter from result
8536 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8537 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8538 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8540 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8542 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8543 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8545 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8546 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8547 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8548 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8549 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8551 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8552 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8553 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8555 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8556 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8557 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8558 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8560 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8561 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8563 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8564 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8566 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8568 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8569 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8570 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8571 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8572 a delimiting character.
8573 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8575 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8576 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8577 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8578 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8579 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8580 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8582 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8583 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8585 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8586 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8587 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8589 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8590 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8591 the array to read and write.
8593 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8594 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8597 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8599 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8602 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8603 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8604 Values for COMMAND are:
8606 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8607 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8608 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8609 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8610 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8611 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8612 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8613 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8615 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8617 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8618 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8619 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8620 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8621 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8622 corresponding return set will be the same.
8624 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8627 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8628 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8629 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8630 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8631 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8632 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8633 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8634 special file being created.
8636 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8637 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8639 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8640 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8641 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8642 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8643 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8644 and originating address.
8646 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8647 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8648 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8650 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8653 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8654 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8657 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8658 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8659 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8660 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8661 this function returns #f.
8663 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8664 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8665 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8668 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8669 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8670 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8673 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8674 a valid STATUS value.
8676 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8678 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8679 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8681 Component Accessor Setter
8682 ========================= ============ ============
8683 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8684 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8685 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8686 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8687 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8688 year tm:year set-tm:year
8689 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8690 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8691 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8692 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8693 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8695 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8696 describing the host system:
8699 ============================================== ================
8700 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8701 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8702 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8703 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8704 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8706 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8707 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8708 system's user database:
8711 ====================== =================
8712 user name passwd:name
8713 user password passwd:passwd
8716 real name passwd:gecos
8717 home directory passwd:dir
8718 shell program passwd:shell
8720 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8721 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8722 system's group database:
8725 ======================= ============
8726 group name group:name
8727 group password group:passwd
8729 group members group:mem
8731 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8732 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8736 ========================= ===============
8737 official name of host hostent:name
8738 alias list hostent:aliases
8739 host address type hostent:addrtype
8740 length of address hostent:length
8741 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8743 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8744 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8748 ========================= ===============
8749 official name of net netent:name
8750 alias list netent:aliases
8751 net number type netent:addrtype
8752 net number netent:net
8754 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8755 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8759 ========================= ===============
8760 official protocol name protoent:name
8761 alias list protoent:aliases
8762 protocol number protoent:proto
8764 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8765 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8769 ========================= ===============
8770 official service name servent:name
8771 alias list servent:aliases
8772 port number servent:port
8773 protocol to use servent:proto
8775 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8776 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8779 ======================================== ===============
8780 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8781 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8782 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8783 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8785 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8786 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8787 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8789 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8790 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8792 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8793 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8795 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8796 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8798 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8800 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8802 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8803 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8804 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8806 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8807 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8808 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8809 return the remaining characters as a string.
8811 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8812 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8813 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8815 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8817 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8819 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8822 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8825 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8826 and returns the array
8828 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8829 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8830 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8832 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8834 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8835 symbol's value from C code:
8837 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8838 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8839 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8840 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8842 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8843 without assigning them a value.
8845 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8846 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8847 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8849 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8850 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8851 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8853 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8854 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8856 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8857 doesn't actually care about that.
8859 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8860 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8861 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8863 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8864 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8865 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8866 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8867 which we have just created and initialized.
8869 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8870 should one occur. We call it like this:
8871 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8873 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8874 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8875 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8876 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8877 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8878 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8881 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8882 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8883 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8884 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8885 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8886 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8887 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8890 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8891 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8892 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8893 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8894 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8897 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8898 scm_internal_catch, except:
8900 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8901 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8902 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8903 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8906 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8907 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8908 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8910 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8911 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8912 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8913 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8916 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8917 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8918 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8920 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8921 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8922 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8923 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8924 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8926 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8927 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8928 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8930 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8931 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8932 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8934 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8935 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8937 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8938 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8939 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8942 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8943 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8944 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8945 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8946 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8947 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8948 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8951 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8952 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8954 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8955 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8956 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8957 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8958 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8961 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8962 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8964 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8965 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8968 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8969 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8971 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8974 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8975 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8976 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8977 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8978 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8979 given the following arguments:
8981 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8983 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8985 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8987 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8990 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8991 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8992 command-line arguments.
8994 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8995 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8996 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8997 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8998 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8999 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
9002 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9005 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
9006 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
9008 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
9009 rearranged slightly. They are now:
9011 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9012 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9013 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
9014 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
9016 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9017 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9019 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9020 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
9021 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9022 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
9024 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9025 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9027 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
9028 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
9030 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
9032 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
9033 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
9034 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
9037 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
9038 returns a port instead of an FD object.
9040 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
9041 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
9046 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
9049 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
9051 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
9052 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
9053 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
9054 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
9056 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
9058 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
9060 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
9061 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
9062 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
9063 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
9064 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
9065 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
9066 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
9067 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
9068 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
9069 for more information.
9071 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
9072 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9074 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9075 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9076 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9077 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9078 following two lines at the top of the file:
9080 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9083 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9084 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9085 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9087 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9089 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9091 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9094 (display (car args))
9095 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9097 (loop (cdr args)))))
9100 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9101 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9102 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9103 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9104 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9105 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9109 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9112 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9115 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9117 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9118 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9119 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9120 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9121 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9124 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9125 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9126 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9127 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9128 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9131 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9134 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9135 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9136 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9139 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9140 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9141 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9143 to see a backtrace, and
9144 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9145 to see them by default.
9149 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9151 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9153 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9154 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9157 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9158 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9159 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9160 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9163 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9164 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9165 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9166 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9167 functions which inspired them.
9169 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9170 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9174 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9176 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9178 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9179 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9182 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9183 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9184 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9186 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9187 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9188 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9189 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9190 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9192 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9194 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9195 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9196 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9199 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9202 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9204 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9205 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9206 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9207 above should serve their purposes.
9209 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9210 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9211 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9212 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9214 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9217 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9218 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9219 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9220 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9222 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9223 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9224 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9225 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9227 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9228 for the `read' function.
9231 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9232 to that of `integer?'.
9234 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9235 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9237 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9238 it simply returns the object's property list.
9240 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9241 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9242 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9243 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9245 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9247 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9250 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9252 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9253 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9255 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9257 void (*main_func) (),
9260 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9261 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9262 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9263 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9264 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9266 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9267 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9268 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9269 know which arguments have been processed.
9271 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9272 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9273 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9274 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9275 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9277 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9278 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9279 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9280 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9281 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9282 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9283 people from making that mistake.
9285 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9286 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9288 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9290 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9294 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9297 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9298 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9299 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9300 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9303 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9304 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9305 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9306 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9309 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9310 have been added to the Guile library.
9312 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9313 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9314 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9317 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9318 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9319 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9321 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9322 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9323 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9324 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9325 argument from the list.
9328 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9331 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9332 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9334 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9335 to a Scheme port object.
9337 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9338 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9343 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9345 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9346 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9347 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9348 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9349 code as a special datatype.
9351 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9352 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9353 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9354 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9355 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9358 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9359 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9360 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9361 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9362 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9364 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9367 Copyright information:
9369 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9371 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9372 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9373 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9374 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9376 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9377 of this document, or of portions of it,
9378 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9379 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9384 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"