1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
61 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
68 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
69 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
70 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
71 in parallel to other sections.
73 ### move rest to manual
75 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
76 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
77 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
78 serial section (including itself).
80 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
81 inner-most construct is in effect.
83 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
86 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
87 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
88 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
91 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
92 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
93 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
96 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
97 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
98 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
99 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
100 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
101 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
103 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
105 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
107 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
109 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
110 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
112 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13) and (srfi srfi-14) have been merged with
113 the core, making their functionality always available.
115 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
116 with a renaming import, for example.
118 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
120 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
121 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
123 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
125 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
126 provided. Use 'make html'.
128 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
130 ** New command line option `-L'.
132 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
134 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
136 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
137 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
139 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
141 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
142 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
144 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
146 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
147 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
150 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
153 (define-module (demo)
157 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
160 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
162 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
163 substrings and read-only strings.
165 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
166 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
169 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
171 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
180 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
181 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
182 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
184 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
185 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
186 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
189 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
190 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
193 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
195 See the manual for details.
197 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
199 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
202 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
204 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
205 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
206 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
207 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
209 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
210 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
211 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
214 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
216 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
217 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
228 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
232 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
237 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
241 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
245 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
247 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
248 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
249 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
252 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
255 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
257 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
260 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
261 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
269 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
270 has been detected is to
272 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
273 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
274 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
277 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
280 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
282 to your .guile init file.
284 ### move rest to manual
286 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
288 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
290 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
291 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
292 tried until a binding is selected.
294 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
296 check report an error for bindings with a common name
297 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
298 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
299 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
300 and accept the override
301 first select the first encountered binding (override)
302 last select the last encountered binding (override)
304 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
306 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
307 into an <extended-generic>
308 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
310 The default duplicates handler is:
312 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
314 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
315 behavior) can be installed with:
317 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
319 ** New define-module option: :replace
321 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
324 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
325 for the core binding `format'.
327 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
329 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
330 a prefix to all imported bindings.
333 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
335 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
338 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
340 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
341 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
342 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
344 ### move the rest to the manual
346 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
347 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
350 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
351 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
352 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
354 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
355 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
356 generic functions sharing a common name:
358 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
359 :use-module (oop goops)
362 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
363 :use-module (oop goops)
366 (define-module (my-module)
367 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
368 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
369 :duplicates merge-generics)
371 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
374 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
375 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
376 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
379 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
380 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
381 functions, extending its ancestors.
383 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
384 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
385 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
387 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
388 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
389 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
390 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
393 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
394 adding it to the ancestor.
396 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
397 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
399 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
401 ** New function: effective-version
403 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
404 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
405 to the distribution" above.
407 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
409 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
410 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
412 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
414 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
415 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
417 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
419 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
420 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
421 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
422 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
425 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
426 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
427 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
428 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
430 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
431 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
434 *** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
436 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
438 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
440 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
441 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
443 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
445 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
446 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
449 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
451 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
453 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
455 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
456 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
457 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
460 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
461 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
462 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
465 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
466 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
468 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
470 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
471 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
474 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
475 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
477 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
478 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
479 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
480 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
481 level for the current thread.
483 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
485 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
487 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
488 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
491 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
493 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
495 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
498 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
500 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
503 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
504 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
505 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
507 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
508 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
509 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
510 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
521 ERROR: Numerical overflow
523 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
526 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
528 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
529 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
530 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
541 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
543 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
544 them is also done exactly, of course:
549 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
552 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
553 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
555 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
557 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
558 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
559 equal to a floating point number. For example:
561 (inexact->exact 1.234)
562 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
564 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
566 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
569 ** New function 'rationalize'.
571 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
572 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
574 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
577 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
578 result when both its arguments are exact.
580 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
582 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
583 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
584 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
586 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
588 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
589 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
590 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
592 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
595 ** pretty-print has more options.
597 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
598 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
599 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
601 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
603 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
604 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
605 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
607 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
609 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
610 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
612 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
614 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
615 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
618 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
620 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
621 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
622 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
623 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
624 without the soft port blocking.
626 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
628 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
629 chapter in the reference manual.
631 ** Deprecated: undefine
633 There is no replacement for undefine.
635 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
636 have been discouraged.
638 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
639 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
640 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
643 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
646 * Changes to the C interface
648 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
650 This is a milder form of deprecation.
652 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
653 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
654 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
655 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
656 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
658 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
659 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
661 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
662 Scheme values has been added.
664 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
665 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
670 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
671 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
673 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
675 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
676 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
679 - SCM scm_from_<type>) (<type> val, ...)
681 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
682 scm_from_int for ints.
684 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
685 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
686 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
688 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
690 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
691 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
692 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
695 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
697 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
699 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
701 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
702 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
703 following alternatives.
705 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
706 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
707 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
708 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
710 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
711 do the validating for you.
713 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
714 have been discouraged.
716 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
717 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
720 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
722 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
723 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
726 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
728 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
731 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
734 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
736 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
737 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
739 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
740 scm_truncate_number should have.
742 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
743 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
745 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
748 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
749 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
750 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
752 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
753 easier to use from C.
755 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
756 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
758 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
759 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
760 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
763 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
764 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
765 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
766 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
769 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
770 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
771 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
772 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
773 and is thus quite efficient.
775 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
777 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
778 about the character encoding.
780 Replace according to the following table:
782 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
783 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
784 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
785 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
786 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
787 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
788 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
789 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
790 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
792 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
793 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
795 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
797 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
798 now also available to C code.
800 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
802 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
803 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
804 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
806 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
808 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
809 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
811 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
812 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
813 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
814 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
816 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
818 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
819 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
820 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
822 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
823 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
825 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
826 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
827 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
828 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
830 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
832 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
833 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
834 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
835 prevent a potential memory leak:
844 mem = scm_malloc (100);
845 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
847 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
848 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
855 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
856 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
860 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
862 ** New function scm_frame_free
864 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
865 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
866 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
868 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
870 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
871 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
872 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
874 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
876 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
877 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
879 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
881 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
882 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
884 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
886 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
887 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
888 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
890 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
892 You should not have used them.
894 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
896 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
897 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
899 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
901 This macro is not intended for public use.
903 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
905 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
907 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
909 Use scm_is_real instead.
911 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
913 Use scm_is_complex instead.
915 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
917 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
918 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
920 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
921 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
923 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
924 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
926 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
928 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
931 ** New function: scm_effective_version
933 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
934 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
935 to the distribution" above.
937 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
939 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
940 arguments are now passed directly:
942 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
944 This is an incompatible change.
946 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
948 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
949 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
950 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
952 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
953 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
955 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
957 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
959 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
960 function in the init section.
962 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
964 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
966 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
968 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
969 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
970 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
972 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
974 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
975 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
976 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
977 stays roughly constant.
979 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
980 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
981 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
982 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
983 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
986 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
987 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
988 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
989 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
991 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
993 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
995 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
997 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
998 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
999 initializes a new cell (see below).
1001 ** New functions for memory management
1003 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1004 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1005 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1006 cause aborts in long running programs.
1008 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1009 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1011 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1012 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1013 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1014 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1015 details and for upgrading instructions.
1017 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1018 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1019 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1021 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1023 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1024 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1025 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1026 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1027 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1029 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1030 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1031 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1033 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1034 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1036 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1038 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1039 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1040 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1041 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1042 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1044 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1046 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1049 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1051 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1053 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1055 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1056 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1058 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1060 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1061 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1063 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1065 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1066 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1067 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1068 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1069 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1070 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1071 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1072 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1073 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1074 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1075 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1076 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1077 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1078 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1079 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1080 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1081 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1082 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1083 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1084 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1085 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1086 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1087 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1088 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1089 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1090 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1091 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1092 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1093 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1094 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1095 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1098 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1100 * Changes to the distribution
1102 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1104 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1106 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1107 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1108 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1109 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1110 indicate major changes in Guile.
1112 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1113 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1114 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1115 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1117 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1118 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1119 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1120 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1121 micro version number.
1123 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1125 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1127 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1128 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1130 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1132 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1133 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1134 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1136 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1138 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1139 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1140 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1143 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1145 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1148 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1150 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1151 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1153 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1155 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1156 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1159 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1161 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1164 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1167 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1169 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1171 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1172 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1173 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1175 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1177 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1179 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1182 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1184 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1186 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1188 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1189 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1190 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1192 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1194 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1196 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1197 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1206 See README there for more info.
1208 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1209 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1212 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1214 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1216 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1218 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1219 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1220 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1222 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1224 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1225 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1226 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1228 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1229 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1231 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1234 (oop goops describe)
1236 (oop goops active-slot)
1237 (oop goops composite-slot)
1239 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1240 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1241 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1243 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1245 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1246 in the default environment:
1248 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1249 %read-line write-line
1251 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1252 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1254 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1256 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1259 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1260 can be used for similar functionality.
1262 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1264 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1265 it defines two procedures:
1267 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1269 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1270 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1271 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1274 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1276 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1277 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1278 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1279 write large strings.
1281 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1283 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1284 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1286 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1288 for complete documentation.
1290 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1292 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1293 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1294 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1295 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1297 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1298 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1302 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1303 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1304 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1307 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1310 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1311 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1313 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1314 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1317 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1320 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1322 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1324 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1326 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1328 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1329 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1330 Scheme programs easier.
1332 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1333 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1334 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1335 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1336 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1339 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1340 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1342 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1345 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1347 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1348 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1349 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1352 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1354 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1356 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1357 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1358 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1359 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1360 was also ASCII, for example.
1362 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1364 tag - no replacement.
1365 fseek - replaced by seek.
1366 list* - replaced by cons*.
1368 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1372 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1373 (define m (make-safe-module))
1374 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1375 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1376 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1378 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1380 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1381 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1382 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1384 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1386 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1387 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1388 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1389 from the issues related to the module system.
1391 *** New function: load-extension
1393 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1395 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1397 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1398 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1399 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1401 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1403 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1404 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1405 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1406 support dynamic linking).
1408 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1410 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1411 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1412 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1413 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1416 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1417 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1418 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1419 library and initialize it explicitely.
1421 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1422 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1424 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1426 (define-module (foo bar))
1428 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1430 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1432 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1433 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1435 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1436 (null-environment 5)
1437 (interaction-environment)
1443 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1445 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1446 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1447 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1448 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1450 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1451 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1452 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1453 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1454 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1455 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1456 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1457 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1458 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1459 one eval to the next.
1461 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1462 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1463 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1464 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1465 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1467 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1468 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1469 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1470 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1471 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1472 used in a lexical environment.
1474 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1475 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1476 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1477 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1478 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1479 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1481 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1483 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1484 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1485 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1486 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1487 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1489 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1490 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1491 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1493 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1494 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1496 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1497 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1498 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1500 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1501 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1503 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1504 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1505 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1506 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1509 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1510 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1511 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1512 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1514 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1515 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1516 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1518 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1519 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1520 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1521 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1522 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1524 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1526 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1527 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1528 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1530 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1531 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1532 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1534 See manual for more info.
1536 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1538 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1539 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1540 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1542 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1544 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1545 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1546 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1548 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1549 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1550 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1551 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1553 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1555 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1556 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1558 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1559 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1560 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1561 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1562 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1565 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1566 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1567 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1568 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1569 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1570 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1572 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1573 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1574 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1575 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1576 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1578 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1579 objects are usually permanent.
1581 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1582 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1584 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1586 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1587 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1590 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1594 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1599 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1601 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1602 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1603 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1604 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1606 ** New function `make-object-property'
1608 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1609 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1613 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1614 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1618 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1619 source properties eventually.
1621 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1623 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1624 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1625 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1627 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1628 will be removed in the next release.
1630 ** New define-module option: pure
1632 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1637 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1640 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1642 Export names NAME1 ...
1644 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1645 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1649 (define-module (foo)
1651 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1654 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1659 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1661 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1663 ** New function: port? X
1665 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1666 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1668 ** New function: file-port?
1670 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1672 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1674 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1675 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1676 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1677 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1678 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1680 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1682 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1683 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1684 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1685 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1686 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1689 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1691 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1692 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1693 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1694 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1697 ** New function: crypt password salt
1699 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1702 ** New function: chroot path
1704 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1706 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1708 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1711 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1713 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1715 ** New function: getpass prompt
1717 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1720 ** New function: flock file operation
1722 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1724 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1726 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1729 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1731 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1732 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1733 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1734 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1735 of the temporary file.
1737 ** New function: open-input-string string
1739 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1740 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1741 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1743 ** New function: open-output-string
1745 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1746 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1748 ** New function: get-output-string
1750 Return the contents of an output string port.
1752 ** New function: identity
1754 Return the argument.
1756 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1757 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1759 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1761 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1762 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1763 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1766 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1767 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1769 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1771 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1772 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1773 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1776 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1777 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1778 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1782 Use `identity' instead.
1788 ** Deprecated: return-it
1792 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1794 Use `string-length' instead.
1796 ** Deprecated: flags
1798 Use `logior' instead.
1800 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1802 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1803 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1804 port-for-each is more flexible.
1806 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1807 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1808 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1810 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1812 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1814 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1816 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1818 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1820 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1821 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1823 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1824 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1826 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1827 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1829 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1831 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1832 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1834 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1835 Use module system operations for all variables.
1837 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1839 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1842 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1844 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1845 The following bugs have been fixed:
1847 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1848 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1851 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1852 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1853 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1855 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1856 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1858 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1859 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1862 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1863 The expansion used to be like so:
1865 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1867 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1869 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1871 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1872 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1874 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1876 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1877 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1878 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1882 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1883 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1885 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1890 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1891 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1893 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1894 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1895 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1897 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1900 * Changes to the C interface
1902 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1904 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1905 with "_t". What a concept.
1907 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1909 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1911 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1915 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1916 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1918 *** C Functions removed
1920 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1921 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1922 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1923 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1924 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1925 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1926 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1928 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1930 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1932 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1934 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1936 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1937 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1939 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1941 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1944 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1946 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1948 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1950 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
1951 Evaluation" in the manual.
1953 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1955 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
1956 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
1958 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1960 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
1961 Constructors" in the manual.
1963 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1965 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1966 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1968 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1970 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1972 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1973 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1974 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1976 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1978 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1980 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1981 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1982 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1985 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1987 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1989 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1990 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1992 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1994 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1995 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1996 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1997 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1999 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2000 scm_primitive_property_ref
2001 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2002 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2004 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2005 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2007 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2009 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2010 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2011 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2012 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2014 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2016 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2017 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2018 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2019 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2020 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2021 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2022 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2024 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2025 scm_remember_upto_here
2027 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2029 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2031 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2032 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2034 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2036 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2038 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2040 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2042 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2044 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2045 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2046 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2047 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2048 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2049 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2051 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2053 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2055 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2056 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2057 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2059 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2061 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2062 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2063 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2065 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2067 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2068 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2071 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2074 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2075 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2078 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2080 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2082 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2084 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2086 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2088 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2090 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2091 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2092 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2093 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2094 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2095 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2096 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2097 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2098 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2099 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2100 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2101 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2102 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2103 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2104 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2106 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2107 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2108 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2109 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2110 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2111 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2112 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2113 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2114 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2115 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2116 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2117 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2118 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2119 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2120 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2121 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2122 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2123 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2124 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2125 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2126 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2127 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2128 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2129 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2130 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2131 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2132 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2133 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2134 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2136 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2138 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2140 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2141 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2143 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2145 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2147 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2149 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2151 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2153 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2155 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2157 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2159 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2162 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2163 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2165 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2167 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2169 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2171 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2173 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2175 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2177 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2179 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2182 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2184 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2186 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2188 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2189 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2191 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2192 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2194 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2196 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2197 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2198 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2200 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2202 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2204 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2205 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2207 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2208 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2209 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2210 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2212 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2213 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2214 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2216 Use the new ones from above instead.
2218 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2220 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2221 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2222 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2224 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2225 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2227 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2228 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2231 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2232 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2234 Use the new functions instead.
2236 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2239 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2241 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2243 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2246 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2248 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2251 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2253 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2256 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2257 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2258 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2260 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2262 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2263 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2265 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2266 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2267 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2268 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2271 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2273 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2274 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2275 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2276 inexact for an exact.
2278 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2279 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2280 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2283 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2284 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2285 accept an inexact argument.
2287 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2288 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2290 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2293 ** New number validation macros:
2294 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2298 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2300 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2301 scm_unprotect_object.
2303 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2305 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2307 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2310 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2312 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2316 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2318 * Changes to the distribution
2320 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2322 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2323 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2324 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2325 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2326 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2327 obtain these programs.
2328 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2329 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2331 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2332 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2333 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2334 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2335 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2337 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2338 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2339 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2340 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2344 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2347 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2348 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2349 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2350 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2352 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2354 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2356 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2357 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2359 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2360 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2362 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2363 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2365 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2366 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2367 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2368 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2370 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2372 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2376 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2377 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2379 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2381 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2382 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2384 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2385 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2386 number of objects of that kind.
2388 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2390 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2391 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2392 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2393 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2394 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2396 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2398 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2400 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2402 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2405 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2407 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2409 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2411 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2413 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2415 ** New command line option --debug
2417 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2419 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2421 ** New help facility
2423 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2424 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2425 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2426 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2427 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2428 (help) gives this text
2430 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2431 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2433 Examples: (help help)
2435 (help "output-string")
2437 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2439 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2441 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2442 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2445 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2446 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2447 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2450 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2451 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2452 use absolute filenames when possible.
2454 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2455 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2456 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2459 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2461 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2462 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2463 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2464 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2466 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2468 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2470 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2471 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2472 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2474 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2475 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2476 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2478 (read-enable 'positions)
2479 (debug-enable 'debug)
2481 ** Backtraces in scripts
2483 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2487 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2489 at the top of the script.
2491 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2492 The second enables backtraces.)
2494 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2496 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2497 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2498 substantially faster than before.
2500 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2501 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2503 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2504 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2506 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2508 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2509 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2510 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2512 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2513 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2514 when this hook is run in the future.
2516 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2517 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2519 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2521 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2522 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2525 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2526 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2527 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2529 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2530 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2532 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2533 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2535 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2536 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2537 in order not to need further allocation.)
2539 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2542 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2543 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2544 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2545 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2547 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2549 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2552 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2554 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2557 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2558 GC in percent of total heap size
2561 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2562 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2564 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2566 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2567 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2569 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2571 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2572 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2574 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2576 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2577 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2581 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2582 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2584 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2586 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2588 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2590 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2592 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2594 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2595 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2597 (simple-format port message . args)
2598 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2599 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2600 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2601 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2602 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2603 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2604 Does not add a trailing newline."
2606 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2608 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2609 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2611 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2612 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2614 ** Deprecated: list*
2616 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2618 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2620 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2621 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2623 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2624 is returned as result.
2626 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2628 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2630 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2632 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2633 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2636 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2638 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2640 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2641 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2643 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2645 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2647 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2649 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2651 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2653 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2655 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2657 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2658 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2659 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2661 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2664 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2666 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2667 the readability of argument checking.
2669 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2671 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2673 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2675 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2676 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2677 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2678 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2679 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2680 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2681 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2683 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2685 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2687 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2688 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2690 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2692 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2693 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2696 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2698 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2699 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2700 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2702 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2703 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2704 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2706 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2707 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2708 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2709 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2710 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2711 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2712 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2714 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2715 scm_end_input (object);
2716 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2717 ptob->flush (object);
2719 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2720 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2723 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2725 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2727 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2728 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2729 removed in a future version.
2731 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2733 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2734 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2735 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2736 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2738 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2739 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2741 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2744 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2746 in your configure.in.
2748 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2753 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2759 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2761 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2765 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2766 (define make-message string-append)
2768 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2770 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2774 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2779 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2783 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2785 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2786 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2788 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2790 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2791 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2792 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2793 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2794 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2795 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2797 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2798 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2799 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2801 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2802 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2803 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2806 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2807 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2808 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2809 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2810 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2812 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2813 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2814 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2815 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2816 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2817 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2818 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2820 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2822 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2823 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2824 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2826 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2827 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2828 KEY in the calling thread.
2830 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2831 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2832 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2833 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2834 associated with the key.
2836 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2838 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2839 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2841 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2843 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2844 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2845 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2847 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2849 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2850 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2852 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2854 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2856 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2857 returned is undefined.
2859 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2860 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2861 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2863 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2864 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2865 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2867 ** New C level GC hooks
2869 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2871 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2874 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2875 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2876 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2878 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2879 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2880 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2882 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2883 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2886 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2888 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2889 allocation parameters
2891 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2892 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2893 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2897 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2898 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2899 scm_default_max_segment_size
2901 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2903 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2904 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2906 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2908 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2909 object and count on the object being protected until
2910 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2912 The functions also have better time complexity.
2914 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2915 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2916 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2917 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2918 are no longer needed.
2920 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2922 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2923 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2924 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2925 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2927 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2929 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2931 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2933 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2934 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2935 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2936 until this issue has been settled.
2938 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2940 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2942 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2945 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2947 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2949 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2950 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2951 descriptors were checked.
2953 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2954 atomically written to a pipe.
2956 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2957 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2958 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2959 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2960 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2961 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2962 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2965 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2966 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2967 is changed without calling tzset.
2969 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2971 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2972 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2973 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2975 (define write-network-long
2976 (lambda (value port)
2977 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2978 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2979 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2981 (define read-network-long
2983 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2984 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2985 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2987 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2988 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2990 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2991 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2992 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2993 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2995 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2996 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2997 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2998 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3002 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3004 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3008 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3009 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3010 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3016 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3017 for a description of available commands.
3019 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3020 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3021 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3023 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3025 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3026 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3028 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3030 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3032 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3033 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3034 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3035 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3036 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3037 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3040 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3042 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3043 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3044 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3045 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3047 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3048 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3050 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3052 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3054 ** Readline support has changed again.
3056 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3057 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3058 to activate readline is now
3060 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3063 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3065 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3066 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3067 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3070 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3071 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3072 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3075 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3076 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3077 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3078 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3079 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3080 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3082 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3083 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3085 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3087 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3088 object it receives is the same string passed to
3089 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3090 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3091 string, not the suffix.
3093 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3094 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3095 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3097 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3099 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3100 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3101 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3102 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3105 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3107 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3109 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3110 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3111 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3112 appear from left to right.
3114 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3117 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3119 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3120 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3122 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3126 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3128 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3130 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3132 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3133 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3134 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3136 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3138 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3140 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3142 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3145 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3147 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3148 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3149 mentioning it here anyway.
3151 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3153 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3154 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3155 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3156 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3159 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3161 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3163 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3165 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3166 otherwise return #f.
3168 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3170 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3171 returned by `opendir'.
3173 ** New function: using-readline?
3175 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3177 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3179 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3180 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3182 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3184 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3186 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3187 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3188 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3190 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3192 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3193 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3195 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3197 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3198 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3199 documentation slots are not yet used.
3201 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3203 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3204 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3205 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3210 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3211 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3212 (string-append x y))
3214 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3215 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3217 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3218 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3219 be made in a clean way.]
3221 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3223 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3225 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3227 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3228 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3230 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3232 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3234 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3236 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3238 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3239 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3240 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3241 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3244 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3246 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3248 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3250 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3252 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3253 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3255 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3257 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3259 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3261 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3263 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3264 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3265 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3266 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3267 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3268 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3270 This should not make any difference for most users.
3272 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3274 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3275 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3277 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3279 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3280 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3281 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3282 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3283 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3285 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3287 It is now replaced by:
3289 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3291 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3292 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3294 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3296 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3297 This might change when we get the new module system.
3299 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3303 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3305 * Changes to mailing lists
3307 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3309 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3312 * Changes to the distribution
3314 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3316 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3317 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3318 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3319 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3320 you explicitly specify it.
3322 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3323 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3324 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3325 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3326 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3329 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3330 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3331 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3332 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3334 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3335 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3336 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3339 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3341 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3344 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3346 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3348 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3349 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3350 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3351 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3353 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3354 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3357 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3359 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3360 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3361 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3362 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3363 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3364 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3365 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3366 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3378 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3379 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3380 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3381 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3382 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3387 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3388 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3396 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3401 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3402 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3405 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3406 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3407 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3408 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3410 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3412 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3414 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3415 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3417 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3419 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3421 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3422 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3424 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3427 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3429 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3431 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3433 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3435 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3437 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3439 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3440 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3441 when the hook was created.
3443 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3444 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3445 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3446 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3447 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3448 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3449 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3450 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3451 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3453 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3454 the dlopen family of functions.
3456 ** New function `provided?'
3458 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3459 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3460 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3461 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3463 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3465 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3466 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3467 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3468 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3471 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3472 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3473 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3474 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3476 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3477 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3478 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3481 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3482 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3483 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3484 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3485 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3486 but with the flag set.
3488 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3490 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3491 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3493 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3494 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3495 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3496 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3497 available Scheme format implementations.
3499 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3500 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3501 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3502 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3503 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3504 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3505 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3506 output is to the current error port if available by the
3507 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3510 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3511 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3512 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3513 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3514 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3515 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3516 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3517 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3519 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3520 be executed at a time.
3523 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3525 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3526 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3527 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3529 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3530 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3531 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3532 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3533 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3534 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3535 general form of a directive is:
3537 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3539 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3541 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3543 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3544 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3545 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3548 Any (print as `display' does).
3552 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3556 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3560 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3566 print number sign always.
3569 print comma separated.
3571 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3577 print number sign always.
3580 print comma separated.
3582 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3588 print number sign always.
3591 print comma separated.
3593 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3599 print number sign always.
3602 print comma separated.
3604 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3609 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3613 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3616 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3619 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3622 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3627 prints `y' and `ies'.
3630 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3633 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3638 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3642 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3645 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3646 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3648 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3651 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3652 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3654 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3657 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3659 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3661 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3664 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3666 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3668 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3671 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3674 The sign appears before the padding.
3682 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3684 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3689 print N page separators.
3699 newline is ignored, white space left.
3702 newline is left, white space ignored.
3707 relative tabulation.
3713 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3715 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3718 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3720 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3723 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3726 converts by `string-upcase'.
3729 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3731 jumps N arguments forward.
3734 jumps 1 argument backward.
3737 jumps N arguments backward.
3740 jumps to the 0th argument.
3743 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3745 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3746 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3748 take argument from N.
3751 true test conditional.
3754 if-else-then conditional.
3760 default clause follows.
3763 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3765 at most N iterations.
3768 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3771 args from the rest of arguments.
3774 args from the rest args (lists).
3785 aborts if N <= M <= K
3787 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3790 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3793 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3799 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3801 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3803 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3804 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3805 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3806 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3807 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3808 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3812 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3816 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3822 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3825 Print a `#\space' character
3827 print N `#\space' characters.
3830 Print a `#\tab' character
3832 print N `#\tab' characters.
3835 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3836 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3837 must be a positive decimal number.
3840 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3841 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3842 be processed by `read'.
3845 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3846 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3847 be processed by `read'.
3850 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3853 prints format version.
3856 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3857 and format it accordingly.
3859 *** Configuration Variables
3861 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3862 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3863 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3864 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3867 format:symbol-case-conv
3868 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3869 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3870 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3871 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3872 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3874 format:iobj-case-conv
3875 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3876 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3879 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3882 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3888 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3889 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3890 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3891 `format' padding style.
3894 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3895 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3896 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3897 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3901 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3902 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3903 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3906 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3907 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3908 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3909 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3910 parameters or modifiers)).
3913 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3915 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3917 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3918 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3920 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3921 string-downcase! functions.
3923 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3924 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3926 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3929 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3932 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3933 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3935 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3937 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3938 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3940 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3941 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3942 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3943 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3944 would if STRING were input.
3946 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3948 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3949 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3950 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3951 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3954 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3956 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3957 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3960 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3962 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3963 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3965 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3966 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3968 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3969 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3970 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3971 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3973 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3974 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3976 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3977 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3978 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3980 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3981 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3983 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3984 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3985 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3986 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3987 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3989 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3990 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3991 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3992 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3993 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3994 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3996 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3997 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3998 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4001 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4002 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4003 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4004 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4005 the following grammar:
4006 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4007 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4008 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4009 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4010 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4011 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4012 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4013 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4014 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4015 last option in its combination)
4017 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4018 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4019 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4020 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4022 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4023 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4024 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4026 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4027 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4028 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4030 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4031 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4032 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4033 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4034 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4035 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4036 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4037 ordinary argument strings.
4039 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4040 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4041 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4042 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4044 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4045 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4047 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4048 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4049 - a required option is omitted
4050 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4051 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4052 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4053 - an option predicate fails
4058 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4061 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4062 (verbose (required? #f)
4065 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4066 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4067 (predicate ,string?))))
4069 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4070 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4072 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4073 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4074 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4075 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4078 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4080 It will be removed in a few releases.
4082 ** New syntax: lambda*
4083 ** New syntax: define*
4084 ** New syntax: define*-public
4085 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4086 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4087 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4089 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4090 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4091 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4092 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4093 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4095 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4096 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4097 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4099 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4101 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4102 and examples for `lambda*':
4105 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4107 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4108 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4109 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4110 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4111 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4112 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4113 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4114 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4116 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4118 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4119 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4120 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4121 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4123 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4124 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4125 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4126 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4127 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4128 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4129 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4130 and until the procedure is called.
4132 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4134 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4135 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4136 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4137 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4138 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4139 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4140 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4141 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4142 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4143 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4145 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4146 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4147 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4148 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4151 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4153 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4154 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4155 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4156 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4158 ** New syntax: and-let*
4159 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4161 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4162 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4163 (<variable> <expression>)
4166 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4167 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4168 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4171 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4172 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4173 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4174 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4175 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4176 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4177 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4179 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4180 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4181 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4182 shadow earlier bindings.
4184 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4186 ** New sorting functions
4188 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4189 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4190 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4191 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4193 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4194 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4197 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4198 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4199 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4201 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4202 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4203 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4204 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4206 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4207 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4208 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4209 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4210 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4213 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4214 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4215 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4216 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4217 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4218 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4220 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4221 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4222 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4224 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4225 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4226 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4229 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4230 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4231 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4233 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4234 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4236 ** New built-in random number support
4238 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4239 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4240 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4241 returned have a uniform distribution.
4243 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4244 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4245 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4246 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4247 effect of the `random' operation.
4249 *** New variable: *random-state*
4250 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4251 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4252 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4253 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4254 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4257 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4258 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4259 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4260 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4261 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4263 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4264 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4265 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4266 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4267 initialized using SEED.
4269 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4270 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4271 range between 0 and 1.
4273 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4274 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4275 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4276 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4277 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4278 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4279 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4281 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4282 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4283 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4284 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4285 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4286 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4288 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4289 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4290 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4291 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4293 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4294 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4295 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4296 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4298 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4299 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4300 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4302 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4304 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4307 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4308 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4311 ** New function: make-guardian
4312 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4313 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4314 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4315 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4316 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4318 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4319 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4320 one object if at all.
4322 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4323 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4324 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4326 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4327 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4328 read again in last-in first-out order.
4330 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4331 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4333 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4335 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4336 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4337 file position is used.
4339 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4340 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4341 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4343 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4344 redefined using seek.
4346 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4347 size is not supplied.
4349 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4350 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4352 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4353 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4355 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4357 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4358 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4359 and returns the contents as a single string.
4361 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4362 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4363 lists in serial order.
4365 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4366 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4367 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4369 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4370 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4371 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4372 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4374 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4375 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4376 and #f if an error occured.
4378 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4380 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4381 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4382 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4383 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4385 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4387 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4390 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4392 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4395 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4399 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4400 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4402 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4403 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4407 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4409 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4411 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4412 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4414 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4416 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4417 might change when we get the new module system.
4419 ** The smob interface
4421 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4422 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4424 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4426 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4430 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4431 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4432 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4433 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4434 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4435 will be freed by the default free function.
4437 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4438 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4439 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4440 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4442 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4443 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4444 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4445 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4447 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4449 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4450 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4454 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4455 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4456 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4458 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4459 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4460 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4461 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4463 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4464 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4465 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4467 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4468 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4469 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4470 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4472 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4473 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4474 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4476 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4480 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4482 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4483 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4484 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4486 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4487 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4488 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4490 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4491 a string port's buffer.
4493 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4494 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4495 function pointers which together define the current random number
4496 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4497 number library functions.
4499 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4502 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4503 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4506 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4507 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4509 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4510 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4512 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4513 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4516 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4517 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4518 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4519 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4521 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4522 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4523 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4524 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4525 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4526 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4527 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4529 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4530 by libguile and the application.
4532 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4533 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4534 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4535 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4537 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4538 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4540 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4541 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4542 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4544 ** Random number library functions
4545 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4546 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4547 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4549 The default random state is stored in:
4551 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4552 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4553 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4558 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4560 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4561 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4562 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4563 isn't a random state.
4565 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4566 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4568 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4569 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4570 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4571 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4573 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4574 Return 32 random bits.
4576 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4577 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4579 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4580 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4582 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4583 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4585 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4586 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4588 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4589 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4590 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4594 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4596 * Changes to the distribution
4598 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4599 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4600 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4603 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4604 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4605 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4607 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4608 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4609 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4610 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4613 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4614 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4615 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4617 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4619 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4621 *** Function: batch-mode?
4623 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4626 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4628 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4629 case has not been implemented.
4631 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4632 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4633 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4636 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4637 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4639 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4641 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4643 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4645 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4646 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4649 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4650 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4651 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4652 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4655 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4657 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4658 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4659 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4660 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4661 find those libraries.
4663 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4664 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4667 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4669 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4670 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4671 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4672 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4674 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4675 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4676 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4680 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4682 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4683 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4684 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4687 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4688 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4689 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4690 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4692 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4693 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4696 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4697 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4698 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4699 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4700 compiler where to find the libraries.
4702 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4703 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4704 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4706 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4707 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4708 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4709 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4710 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4714 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4716 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4717 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4718 internationalization support.
4720 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4721 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4722 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4723 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4724 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4726 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4727 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4728 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4729 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4730 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4732 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4733 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4734 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4735 any GNU mirror site.
4737 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4739 ** New function: add-history STRING
4740 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4741 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4742 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4744 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4746 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4747 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4748 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4751 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4752 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4753 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4755 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4757 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4760 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4761 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4764 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4765 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4766 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4767 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4768 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4769 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4771 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4772 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4773 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4774 of the form mentioned above.
4776 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4777 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4778 returned in the special `rest' list.
4780 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4781 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4783 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4785 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4787 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4789 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4790 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4791 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4792 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4793 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4794 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4795 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4796 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4799 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4801 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4803 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4804 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4807 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4808 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4809 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4813 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4814 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4815 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4816 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4817 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4818 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4819 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4820 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4823 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4825 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4826 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4827 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4829 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4831 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4832 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4834 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4835 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4836 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4838 Why do we have this function?
4839 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4840 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4841 primitive, and display it differently, and
4842 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4843 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4846 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4847 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4850 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4851 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4852 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4853 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4855 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4856 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4859 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4860 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4862 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4864 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4865 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4866 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4867 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4868 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4869 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4870 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4873 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4875 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4876 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4878 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4879 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4880 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4881 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4882 properly continue the print chain.
4884 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4885 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4886 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4887 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4888 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4889 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4890 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4891 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4893 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4894 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4895 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4896 safest to not check for these pairs.
4898 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4899 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4900 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4901 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4903 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4905 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4906 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4908 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4910 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4912 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4913 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4914 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4916 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4917 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4918 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4920 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4921 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4922 the following functions and macros:
4924 Function: make-fluid
4926 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4927 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4928 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4929 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4930 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4932 Function: fluid? OBJ
4934 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4936 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4937 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4939 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4940 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4942 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4944 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4945 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4946 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4947 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4948 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4949 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4950 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4952 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4954 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4955 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4956 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4957 should evaluate to a fluid.
4959 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4961 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4962 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4963 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4964 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4965 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4967 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4970 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4972 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4974 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4976 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4979 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4980 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4981 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4982 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4983 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4986 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4987 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4988 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4990 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4991 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4992 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4994 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4995 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4996 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4997 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4999 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5000 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5001 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5002 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5004 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5005 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5006 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5007 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5009 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5010 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5011 their revealed counts set to zero.
5013 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5014 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5016 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5017 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5019 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5020 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5022 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5023 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5024 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5026 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5027 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5028 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5030 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5031 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5032 default environment inherited by child processes.
5034 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5035 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5036 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5038 The return value is unspecified.
5040 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5041 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5042 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5043 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5044 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5046 The return value is unspecified.
5048 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5049 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5057 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5058 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5061 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5064 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5065 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5066 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5068 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5069 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5070 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5071 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5074 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5075 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5077 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5078 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5079 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5080 the `environ' procedure.
5082 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5083 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5086 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5087 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5089 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5090 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5091 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5092 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5094 *** procedure: times
5095 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5096 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5097 return a selected component:
5100 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5104 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5107 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5111 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5112 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5116 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5117 terminated child processes.
5119 ** Removed: list-length
5120 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5121 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5123 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5125 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5127 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5129 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5130 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5131 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5132 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5134 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5135 extra complexity it introduces.
5137 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5138 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5140 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5141 variable to any non-empty value.
5143 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5144 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5146 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5148 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5149 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5151 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5153 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5154 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5156 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5158 ** vector handling routines
5160 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5161 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5162 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5163 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5164 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5166 ** pair and list routines
5168 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5171 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5173 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5176 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5178 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5180 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5181 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5182 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5183 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5184 site-specific initialization code.
5186 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5187 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5188 initialization processes.
5190 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5191 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5192 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5193 initialized properly.
5195 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5196 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5197 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5199 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5200 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5201 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5202 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5203 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5205 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5207 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5208 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5209 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5210 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5211 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5213 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5214 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5215 which look like this:
5218 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5220 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5221 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5224 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5225 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5228 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5230 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5231 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5232 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5234 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5235 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5236 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5237 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5238 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5240 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5241 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5243 int (*free) (SCM port);
5244 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5245 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5246 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5250 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5251 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5252 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5254 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5257 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5258 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5259 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5261 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5262 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5263 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5266 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5270 struct timeval *timeout);
5272 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5273 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5274 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5275 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5276 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5277 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5279 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5280 scm_catch_body_t body,
5282 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5285 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5286 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5287 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5288 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5289 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5290 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5292 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5294 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5297 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5298 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5299 spawning threads from application C code.
5301 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5302 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5303 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5304 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5305 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5306 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5308 ** Removed functions:
5310 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5311 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5313 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5315 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5316 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5318 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5320 ** mbstrings are now removed
5322 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5323 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5325 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5327 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5328 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5329 their new names and arguments:
5331 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5332 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5333 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5334 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5337 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5339 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5341 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5344 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5346 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5347 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5348 pass a #f arg to catch.
5350 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5352 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5353 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5356 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5357 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5358 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5359 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5360 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5361 reclaim its storage.
5363 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5364 worrying that some other function you call will call
5365 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5366 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5367 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5368 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5371 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5373 * Changes to the distribution
5375 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5376 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5379 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5380 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5382 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5383 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5385 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5387 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5388 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5389 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5391 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5393 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5394 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5395 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5396 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5397 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5398 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5400 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5401 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5402 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5405 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5406 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5407 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5408 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5410 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5411 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5412 libraries to your link command:
5414 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5415 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5416 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5417 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5419 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5420 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5421 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5423 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5425 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5426 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5429 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5431 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5432 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5433 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5434 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5435 searched is system dependent.
5437 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5439 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5441 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5443 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5444 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5446 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5448 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5449 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5450 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5451 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5452 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5455 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5457 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5458 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5459 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5460 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5461 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5463 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5465 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5466 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5468 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5470 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5471 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5472 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5475 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5477 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5478 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5479 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5480 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5482 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5483 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5485 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5487 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5488 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5490 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5492 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5493 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5501 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5503 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5504 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5505 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5506 a more informative way.
5508 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5509 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5510 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5511 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5512 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5513 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5515 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5516 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5519 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5520 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5521 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5524 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5525 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5526 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5527 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5528 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5529 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5531 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5532 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5533 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5534 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5537 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5538 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5539 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5540 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5541 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5542 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5544 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5545 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5546 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5547 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5548 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5550 *** regexp functions
5552 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5553 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5554 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5556 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5557 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5558 with SCSH regular expressions.
5560 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5561 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5562 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5563 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5565 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5566 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5567 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5568 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5570 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5571 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5572 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5573 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5574 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5575 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5577 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5578 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5579 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5580 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5581 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5583 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5585 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5586 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5587 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5588 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5590 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5591 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5592 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5594 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5595 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5597 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5600 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5601 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5602 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5604 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5605 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5606 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5608 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5609 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5610 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5611 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5612 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5615 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5617 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5618 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5619 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5620 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5621 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5622 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5624 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5625 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5626 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5628 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5629 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5632 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5633 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5635 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5636 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5637 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5638 may be one of the following arguments:
5640 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5642 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5644 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5645 the regexp match is written.
5647 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5648 following the regexp match is written.
5650 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5651 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5654 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5655 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5656 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5657 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5658 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5659 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5661 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5664 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5665 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5666 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5667 written out to PORT.
5669 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5670 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5671 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5672 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5673 will return after processing a single match.
5675 *** Match Structures
5677 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5678 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5679 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5680 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5681 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5682 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5685 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5686 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5687 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5688 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5689 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5691 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5692 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5693 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5695 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5696 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5697 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5698 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5699 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5701 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5702 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5704 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5705 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5707 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5708 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5710 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5711 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5713 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5714 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5715 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5716 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5718 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5719 Return the original TARGET string.
5721 *** Backslash Escapes
5723 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5724 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5725 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5726 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5727 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5728 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5730 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5731 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5732 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5733 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5734 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5735 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5736 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5737 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5739 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5740 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5741 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5742 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5743 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5744 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5745 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5747 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5748 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5749 return the resulting string.
5751 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5752 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5753 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5754 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5755 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5756 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5757 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5758 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5759 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5760 translated to the single character `*'.
5762 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5763 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5764 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5765 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5766 consecutive backslashes:
5768 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5770 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5771 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5772 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5774 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5775 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5776 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5777 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5778 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5779 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5781 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5783 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5784 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5785 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5786 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5787 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5788 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5789 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5790 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5791 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5792 cumbersome escape syntax.
5794 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5796 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5798 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5800 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5803 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5805 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5807 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5810 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5811 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5812 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5813 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5814 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5816 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5817 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5818 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5819 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5820 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5821 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5822 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5825 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5826 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5827 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5830 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5831 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5833 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5834 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5835 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5836 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5837 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5838 installed, you can say:
5840 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5843 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5845 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5846 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5847 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5848 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5849 new dynamic roots and threads.
5852 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5854 * Changes to the distribution.
5856 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5858 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5859 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5860 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5861 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5862 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5863 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5864 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5865 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5867 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5870 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5871 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5876 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5878 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5879 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5881 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5882 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5883 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5884 the (command-line) function.
5885 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5886 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5887 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5889 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5890 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5891 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5892 command line arguments
5893 -ds do -s script at this point
5894 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5895 -h, --help display this help and exit
5896 -v, --version display version information and exit
5897 \ read arguments from following script lines
5899 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5900 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5902 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5905 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5909 (main (command-line))
5911 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5913 ekko a speckled gecko
5915 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5916 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5917 following list of command-line arguments:
5919 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5921 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5922 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5923 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5924 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5925 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5927 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5929 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5931 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5932 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5935 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5936 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5937 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5938 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5940 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5941 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5942 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5943 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5945 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5949 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5953 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5955 ekko a speckled gecko
5957 Unix expands this into
5959 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5961 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5962 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5964 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5966 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5967 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5969 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5970 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5971 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5972 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5973 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5974 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5975 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5976 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5977 it only terminates the argument list.)
5978 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5979 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5980 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5981 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5982 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5983 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5984 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5985 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5987 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5989 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5990 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5991 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5992 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5993 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5995 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5996 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5997 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5999 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6001 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6002 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6003 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6004 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6007 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6008 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6009 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6011 * Changes to Scheme functions
6013 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6014 and disabled by default.
6016 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6017 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6018 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6019 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6021 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6023 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6025 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6026 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6028 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6029 (read-set! keywords #f)
6031 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6032 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6033 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6036 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6037 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6038 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6041 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6042 support for Scheme functions.
6044 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6045 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6046 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6047 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6050 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6051 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6052 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6055 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6056 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6057 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6060 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6061 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6062 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6063 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6064 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6065 display the result as a prompt.
6066 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6068 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6069 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6070 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6073 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6074 procedure of zero arguments.
6076 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6077 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6078 argument is bound in the current module.
6080 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6081 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6082 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6083 public bindings into the current module.
6085 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6086 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6088 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6089 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6091 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6092 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6094 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6095 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6097 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6098 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6100 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6101 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6102 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6103 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6104 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6106 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6107 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6108 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6109 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6111 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6114 ** Changes to I/O functions
6116 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6117 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6118 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6120 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6121 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6122 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6124 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6125 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6127 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6128 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6129 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6130 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6132 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6134 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6135 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6137 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6138 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6139 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6140 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6141 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6144 'trim omit delimiter from result
6145 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6146 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6147 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6149 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6151 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6152 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6154 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6155 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6156 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6157 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6158 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6160 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6161 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6162 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6164 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6165 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6166 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6167 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6169 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6170 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6172 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6173 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6175 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6177 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6178 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6179 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6180 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6181 a delimiting character.
6182 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6184 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6185 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6186 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6187 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6188 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6189 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6191 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6192 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6194 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6195 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6196 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6198 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6199 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6200 the array to read and write.
6202 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6203 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6206 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6208 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6211 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6212 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6213 Values for COMMAND are:
6215 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6216 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6217 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6218 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6219 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6220 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6221 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6222 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6224 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6226 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6227 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6228 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6229 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6230 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6231 corresponding return set will be the same.
6233 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6236 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6237 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6238 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6239 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6240 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6241 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6242 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6243 special file being created.
6245 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6246 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6248 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6249 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6250 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6251 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6252 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6253 and originating address.
6255 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6256 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6257 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6259 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6262 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6263 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6266 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6267 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6268 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6269 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6270 this function returns #f.
6272 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6273 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6274 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6277 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6278 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6279 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6282 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6283 a valid STATUS value.
6285 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6287 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6288 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6290 Component Accessor Setter
6291 ========================= ============ ============
6292 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6293 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6294 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6295 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6296 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6297 year tm:year set-tm:year
6298 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6299 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6300 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6301 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6302 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6304 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6305 describing the host system:
6308 ============================================== ================
6309 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6310 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6311 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6312 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6313 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6315 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6316 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6317 system's user database:
6320 ====================== =================
6321 user name passwd:name
6322 user password passwd:passwd
6325 real name passwd:gecos
6326 home directory passwd:dir
6327 shell program passwd:shell
6329 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6330 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6331 system's group database:
6334 ======================= ============
6335 group name group:name
6336 group password group:passwd
6338 group members group:mem
6340 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6341 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6345 ========================= ===============
6346 official name of host hostent:name
6347 alias list hostent:aliases
6348 host address type hostent:addrtype
6349 length of address hostent:length
6350 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6352 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6353 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6357 ========================= ===============
6358 official name of net netent:name
6359 alias list netent:aliases
6360 net number type netent:addrtype
6361 net number netent:net
6363 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6364 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6368 ========================= ===============
6369 official protocol name protoent:name
6370 alias list protoent:aliases
6371 protocol number protoent:proto
6373 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6374 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6378 ========================= ===============
6379 official service name servent:name
6380 alias list servent:aliases
6381 port number servent:port
6382 protocol to use servent:proto
6384 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6385 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6388 ======================================== ===============
6389 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6390 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6391 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6392 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6394 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6395 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6396 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6398 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6399 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6401 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6402 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6404 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6405 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6407 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6409 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6411 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6412 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6413 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6415 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6416 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6417 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6418 return the remaining characters as a string.
6420 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6421 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6422 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6424 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6426 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6428 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6431 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6434 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6435 and returns the array
6437 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6438 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6439 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6441 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6443 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6444 symbol's value from C code:
6446 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6447 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6448 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6449 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6451 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6452 without assigning them a value.
6454 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6455 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6456 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6458 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6459 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6460 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6462 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6463 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6465 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6466 doesn't actually care about that.
6468 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6469 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6470 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6472 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6473 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6474 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6475 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6476 which we have just created and initialized.
6478 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6479 should one occur. We call it like this:
6480 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6482 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6483 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6484 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6485 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6486 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6487 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6490 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6491 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6492 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6493 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6494 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6495 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6496 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6499 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6500 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6501 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6502 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6503 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6506 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6507 scm_internal_catch, except:
6509 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6510 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6511 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6512 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6515 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6516 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6517 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6519 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6520 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6521 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6522 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6525 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6526 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6527 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6529 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6530 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6531 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6532 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6533 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6535 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6536 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6537 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6539 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6540 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6541 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6543 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6544 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6546 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6547 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6548 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6551 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6552 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6553 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6554 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6555 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6556 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6557 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6560 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6561 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6563 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6564 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6565 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6566 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6567 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6570 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6571 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6573 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6574 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6577 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6578 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6580 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6583 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6584 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6585 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6586 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6587 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6588 given the following arguments:
6590 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6592 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6594 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6596 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6599 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6600 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6601 command-line arguments.
6603 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6604 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6605 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6606 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6607 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6608 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6611 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6614 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6615 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6617 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6618 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6620 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6621 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6622 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6623 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6625 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6626 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6628 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6629 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6630 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6631 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6633 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6634 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6636 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6637 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6639 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6641 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6642 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6643 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6646 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6647 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6649 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6650 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6655 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6658 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6660 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6661 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6662 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6663 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6665 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6667 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6669 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6670 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6671 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6672 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6673 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6674 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6675 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6676 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6677 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6678 for more information.
6680 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6681 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6683 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6684 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6685 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6686 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6687 following two lines at the top of the file:
6689 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6692 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6693 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6694 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6696 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6698 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6700 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6703 (display (car args))
6704 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6706 (loop (cdr args)))))
6709 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6710 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6711 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6712 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6713 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6714 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6718 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6721 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6724 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6726 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6727 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6728 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6729 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6730 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6733 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6734 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6735 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6736 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6737 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6740 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6743 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6744 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6745 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6748 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6749 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6750 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6752 to see a backtrace, and
6753 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6754 to see them by default.
6758 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6760 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6762 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6763 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6766 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6767 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6768 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6769 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6772 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6773 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6774 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6775 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6776 functions which inspired them.
6778 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6779 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6783 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6785 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6787 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6788 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6791 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6792 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6793 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6795 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6796 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6797 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6798 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6799 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6801 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6803 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6804 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6805 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6808 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6811 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6813 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6814 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6815 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6816 above should serve their purposes.
6818 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6819 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6820 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6821 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6823 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6826 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6827 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6828 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6829 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6831 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6832 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6833 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6834 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6836 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6837 for the `read' function.
6840 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6841 to that of `integer?'.
6843 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6844 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6846 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6847 it simply returns the object's property list.
6849 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6850 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6851 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6852 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6854 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6856 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6859 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6861 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6862 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6864 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6866 void (*main_func) (),
6869 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6870 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6871 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6872 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6873 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6875 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6876 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6877 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6878 know which arguments have been processed.
6880 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6881 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6882 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6883 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6884 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6886 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6887 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6888 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6889 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6890 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6891 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6892 people from making that mistake.
6894 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6895 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6897 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6899 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6903 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6906 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6907 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6908 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6909 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6912 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6913 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6914 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6915 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6918 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6919 have been added to the Guile library.
6921 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6922 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6923 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6926 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6927 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6928 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6930 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6931 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6932 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6933 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6934 argument from the list.
6937 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6940 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6941 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6943 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6944 to a Scheme port object.
6946 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6947 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6952 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6954 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6955 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6956 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6957 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6958 code as a special datatype.
6960 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6961 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6962 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6963 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6964 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6967 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6968 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6969 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6970 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6971 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6973 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6976 Copyright information:
6978 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6980 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6981 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6982 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6983 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6985 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6986 of this document, or of portions of it,
6987 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6988 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6993 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"