doc/ref/preface.texi

   1 @iftex
   2 @page
   3 @unnumbered Preface
   4
   5 This reference manual documents Guile, GNU's Ubiquitous Intelligent
   6 Language for Extensions.  It describes how to use Guile in many useful
   7 and interesting ways.
   8
   9 This is edition @value{MANUAL_EDITION} of the reference manual, and
  10 corresponds to Guile version @value{VERSION}.
  11 @end iftex
  12
  13
  14 @iftex
  15 @section The Guile License
  16 @end iftex
  17
  18 @ifnottex
  19 @node Guile License
  20 @chapter The Guile License
  21 @end ifnottex
  22
  23 The license of Guile consists of the GNU GPL plus a special statement
  24 giving blanket permission to link with non-free software.  This is the
  25 license statement as found in any individual file that it applies to:
  26
  27 @quotation
  28 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  29 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
  30 Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
  31 later version.
  32
  33 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  34 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  35 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
  36 General Public License for more details.
  37
  38 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
  39 with this software; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
  40 Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
  41 02111-1307 USA
  42
  43 As a special exception, the Free Software Foundation gives permission
  44 for additional uses of the text contained in its release of GUILE.
  45
  46 The exception is that, if you link the GUILE library with other files to
  47 produce an executable, this does not by itself cause the resulting
  48 executable to be covered by the GNU General Public License.  Your use of
  49 that executable is in no way restricted on account of linking the GUILE
  50 library code into it.
  51
  52 This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why the
  53 executable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.
  54
  55 This exception applies only to the code released by the Free Software
  56 Foundation under the name GUILE.  If you copy code from other Free
  57 Software Foundation releases into a copy of GUILE, as the General Public
  58 License permits, the exception does not apply to the code that you add
  59 in this way.  To avoid misleading anyone as to the status of such
  60 modified files, you must delete this exception notice from them.
  61
  62 If you write modifications of your own for GUILE, it is your choice
  63 whether to permit this exception to apply to your modifications.  If you
  64 do not wish that, delete this exception notice.
  65 @end quotation
  66
  67
  68 @iftex
  69 @section Layout of this Manual
  70 @end iftex
  71
  72 @ifnottex
  73 @node Manual Layout
  74 @chapter Layout of this Manual
  75 @end ifnottex
  76
  77 The manual is divided into three parts.
  78
  79 @strong{Part I: Introduction to Guile} provides an overview of what
  80 Guile is and how you can use it.  A whirlwind tour shows how Guile can
  81 be used interactively and as a script interpreter, how to link Guile
  82 into your own applications, and how to write modules of interpreted and
  83 compiled code for use with Guile.  Everything introduced here is
  84 documented again and in full by the later parts of the manual.  This
  85 part also explains how to obtain and install new versions of Guile, and
  86 how to report bugs effectively.
  87
  88 @strong{Part II: Programming with Guile} documents all aspects of
  89 practical programming using Guile.  This covers both the Scheme level
  90 --- where we provide an introduction to the key ideas of the Scheme
  91 language --- and use of Guile's @code{scm} interface to write new
  92 primitives and objects in C, and to incorporate Guile into a C
  93 application.  It also covers the use of Guile as a POSIX compliant
  94 script interpreter, and how to use the Guile debugger.
  95
  96 @c @strong{Part V: Extending Applications Using Guile} explains the options
  97 @c available for using Guile as a application extension language.  At the
  98 @c simpler end of the scale, an application might use Guile to define some
  99 @c application-specific primitives in C and then load an application Scheme
 100 @c file.  In this case most of the application code is written on the
 101 @c Scheme level, and uses the application-specific primitives as an
 102 @c extension to standard Scheme.  At the other end of the scale, an
 103 @c application might be predominantly written in C --- with its main
 104 @c control loop implemented in C --- but make occasional forays into Scheme
 105 @c to, say, read configuration data or run user-defined customization code.
 106 @c This part of the manual covers the complete range of application
 107 @c extension options.
 108
 109 @strong{Part III: Guile API Reference} documents Guile's core API.  Most
 110 of the variables and procedures in Guile's core programming interface
 111 are available in both Scheme and C, and are related systematically such
 112 that the C interface can be inferred from the Scheme interface and vice
 113 versa.  Therefore this part of the manual documents the Guile API in
 114 functionality-based groups with the Scheme and C interfaces presented
 115 side by side.  Where the Scheme and C interfaces for a particular
 116 functional area do differ --- which is sometimes inevitable, given the
 117 differences in the structure of the two languages --- this is pointed
 118 out and explained.  In all cases the overriding principle is that all
 119 the reference documentation for a given functional area is grouped
 120 together.
 121
 122 @c the core Scheme language and features that Guile implements.  Although
 123 @c the basis for this is the Scheme language described in R5RS, this part
 124 @c of the manual does not assume any prior familiarity with R5RS in
 125 @c particular, or with Scheme in general.  Basic Scheme concepts, standard
 126 @c aspects of the Scheme language and Guile extensions on top of R5RS are
 127 @c all documented from scratch, and organized by functionality rather than
 128 @c by the defining standards.
 129
 130 @strong{Part IV: Guile Modules} describes some important modules,
 131 distributed as part of the Guile distribution, that extend the
 132 functionality provided by the Guile Scheme core.  Two important examples
 133 are:
 134
 135 @itemize @bullet
 136 @item
 137 the POSIX module, which provides Scheme level procedures for system and
 138 network programming that conform to the POSIX standard
 139
 140 @item
 141 the SLIB module, which makes Aubrey Jaffer's portable Scheme library
 142 available for use in Guile.
 143 @end itemize
 144
 145
 146 @iftex
 147 @section Manual Conventions
 148 @end iftex
 149
 150 @ifnottex
 151 @node Manual Conventions
 152 @chapter Conventions used in this Manual
 153 @end ifnottex
 154
 155 We use some conventions in this manual.
 156
 157 @itemize @bullet
 158
 159 @item
 160 For some procedures, notably type predicates, we use @dfn{iff} to
 161 mean `if and only if'.  The construct is usually something like:
 162 `Return @var{val} iff @var{condition}', where @var{val} is usually
 163 `@code{#t}' or `non-@code{#f}'.  This typically means that @var{val}
 164 is returned if @var{condition} holds, and that @samp{#f} is returned
 165 otherwise.
 166 @cindex iff
 167
 168 @item
 169 In examples and procedure descriptions and all other places where the
 170 evaluation of Scheme expression is shown, we use some notation for
 171 denoting the output and evaluation results of expressions.
 172
 173 The symbol @code{@result{}} is used to tell which value is returned by
 174 an evaluation:
 175
 176 @lisp
 177 (+ 1 2)
 178 @result{}
 179 3
 180 @end lisp
 181
 182 Some procedures produce some output besides returning a value.  This
 183 is denoted by the symbol @code{@print{}}.
 184
 185 @lisp
 186 (begin (display 1) (newline) 'hooray)
 187 @print{} 1
 188 @result{}
 189 hooray
 190 @end lisp
 191
 192 @c Add other conventions here.
 193
 194 @end itemize
 195
 196
 197 @c Local Variables:
 198 @c TeX-master: "guile.texi"
 199 @c End: