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 stable branch:
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.
26 At the moment it is being used to handle Guile's bignums.
28 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
30 Guile now has config.h and libguile/scmconfig.h. The former is not
31 installed and is private. The latter is installed and used by Guile's
32 public headers. config.h is generated by configure and autoheader,
33 and scmconfig.h is generated by a small C program, gen-scmconfig at
34 build time based in part on the contents of config.h.
36 Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
38 Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
39 rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
40 the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
41 defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
42 still either 1 or undefined.
44 ** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
46 Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
48 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
50 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
51 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
52 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
53 so the current effective-version is "1.6". The effective version
54 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
55 items like the versioned share directory name
56 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.6.
58 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
59 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
60 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
61 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
62 with each micro release during a stable series.
64 ** Thread implementation has changed.
66 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
67 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
68 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
69 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
70 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
73 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
74 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
75 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
76 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
77 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
79 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
80 in which case "null" threads are used.
82 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
84 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
85 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
86 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
87 in parallel to other sections.
89 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
90 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
91 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
92 serial section (including itself).
94 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
95 inner-most construct is in effect.
97 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
100 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
101 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
102 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
105 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
106 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
107 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
110 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
111 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
112 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
113 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
114 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
115 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
117 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
119 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
121 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
123 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
124 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
126 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
128 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
129 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
131 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
133 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
134 provided. Use 'make html'.
136 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
138 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
140 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
141 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
143 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
145 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
146 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
148 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
150 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
151 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
154 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
157 (define-module (demo)
161 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
164 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
166 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
168 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
171 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
173 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
174 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
175 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
178 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
179 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
180 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
183 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
185 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
186 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
187 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
190 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
193 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
195 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
198 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
199 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
207 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
208 has been detected is to
210 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
211 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
212 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
215 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
218 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
220 to your .guile init file.
222 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
224 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
226 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
227 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
228 tried until a binding is selected.
230 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
232 check report an error for bindings with a common name
233 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
234 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
235 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
236 and accept the override
237 first select the first encountered binding (override)
238 last select the last encountered binding (override)
240 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
242 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
243 into an <extended-generic>
244 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
246 The default duplicates handler is:
248 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
250 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
251 behavior) can be installed with:
253 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
255 ** New define-module option: :replace
257 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
260 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
261 for the core binding `format'.
263 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
265 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
266 a prefix to all imported bindings.
269 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
271 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
274 ** Merging generic functions
276 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
277 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
280 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
281 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
282 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
284 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
285 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
286 generic functions sharing a common name:
288 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
289 :use-module (oop goops)
292 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
293 :use-module (oop goops)
296 (define-module (my-module)
297 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
298 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
299 :duplicates merge-generics)
301 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
304 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
305 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
306 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
309 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
310 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
311 functions, extending its ancestors.
313 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
314 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
315 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
317 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
318 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
319 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
320 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
323 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
324 adding it to the ancestor.
326 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
327 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
329 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
331 ** New function: effective-version
333 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
334 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
335 to the distribution" above.
337 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
339 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
340 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
342 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
344 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
345 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
347 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
349 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
350 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
351 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
352 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
355 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
356 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
357 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
358 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
360 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
361 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
364 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
366 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
368 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
370 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
371 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
373 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
375 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
376 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
379 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
381 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
383 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
385 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
386 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
387 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
390 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
391 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
392 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
395 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
396 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
398 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
400 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
401 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
404 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
405 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
407 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
408 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
409 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
410 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
411 level for the current thread.
413 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
415 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
417 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
418 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
421 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
423 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
425 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
428 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
430 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
433 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
434 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
435 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
437 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
438 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
439 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
440 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
451 ERROR: Numerical overflow
453 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
456 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
458 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
459 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
460 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
471 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
473 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
474 them is also done exactly, of course:
479 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
482 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
483 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
485 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
487 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
488 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
489 equal to a floating point number. For example:
491 (inexact->exact 1.234)
492 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
494 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
496 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
499 ** New function 'rationalize'.
501 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
502 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
504 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
507 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
508 result when both its arguments are exact.
510 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
512 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
513 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
514 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
516 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
518 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
519 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
520 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
522 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
525 ** pretty-print has more options.
527 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
528 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
529 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
531 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
533 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
534 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
535 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
537 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
539 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
540 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
542 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
544 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
545 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
546 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
548 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
550 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
551 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
552 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
553 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
554 without the soft port blocking.
556 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
558 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
559 chapter in the reference manual.
561 ** Deprecated: undefine
563 There is no replacement for undefine.
565 ** call-with-output-string doesn't segv on closed port
567 Previously call-with-output-string would give a segmentation fault if
568 the string port was closed by the called function. An exception is
571 ** (ice-9 popen) duplicate pipe fd fix
573 open-pipe, open-input-pipe and open-output-pipe left an extra copy of
574 their pipe file descriptor in the child, which was normally harmless,
575 but it can prevent the parent seeing eof or a broken pipe immediately
576 and has now been fixed.
578 ** source-properties and set-source-properties! fix
580 Properties set with set-source-properties! can now be read back
581 correctly with source-properties.
585 delete and delete! now call the "=" procedure with arguments in the
586 order described by the SRFI-1 specification
588 list-copy now accepts improper lists, per the specification.
592 Larger values in 64-bit vectors should print correctly now.
596 date-week-number now correctly respects the requested day of week
599 * Changes to the C interface
601 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
603 This is a milder form of deprecation.
605 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
606 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
607 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
608 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
609 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
611 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
612 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
614 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
615 Scheme values has been added.
617 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
618 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
623 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
624 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
626 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
628 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
629 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
632 - SCM scm_from_<type>) (<type> val, ...)
634 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
635 scm_from_int for ints.
637 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
638 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
639 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
641 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
643 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
644 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
645 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
648 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
650 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
652 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
654 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
655 although they only work correctly with fixnums. Use the following
658 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
659 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
660 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
661 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
663 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these, scm_to_int, etc. will
664 do the validating for you.
666 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
667 have been discouraged.
669 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
670 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
673 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
675 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
676 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
679 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
681 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
684 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
685 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
687 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
688 scm_truncate_number should have.
690 ** The functions scm_c_string2str and scm_c_substring2str have been
693 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
696 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
698 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which return a pointer
699 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
701 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
702 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
703 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
704 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
706 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
708 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
709 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
710 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
712 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
713 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
715 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
716 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
717 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
718 smob words. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
720 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and reentries.
722 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
723 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
724 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
725 prevent a potential memory leak:
734 mem = scm_malloc (100);
735 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
737 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
738 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
745 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
746 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
750 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
752 ** New function scm_frame_free
754 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
755 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
756 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
758 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
760 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
761 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
762 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
764 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
766 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
767 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
769 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
771 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
772 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
774 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
776 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
777 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
778 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
780 ** scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed from public use.
782 For guile internal use, the functions scm_i_unmemocopy_expr,
783 scm_i_unmemocopy_body and scm_i_unmemoize_expr are provided to replace
784 scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize. User code should not have used
785 scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize and thus should not use the replacement
788 Background: Formerly, scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize would have allowed to
789 unmemoize a single expression as well as a sequence of body forms. This would
790 have lead to problems when unmemoizing code of the new memoizer. Now the two
791 cases have to be distinguished.
794 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
796 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
797 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
798 the ones which have been renamed.
800 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
802 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
803 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
804 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
806 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
808 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
809 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
811 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
813 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
814 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
816 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
818 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
819 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
821 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
823 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
825 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
828 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
829 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
830 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
832 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
833 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
834 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
835 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
837 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
839 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
840 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
843 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
845 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
847 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
848 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
850 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
852 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
853 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
855 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
857 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
859 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
861 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
863 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
865 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
867 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
869 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
871 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
873 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
875 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
877 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
878 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
880 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
882 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
883 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
885 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
887 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
888 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
890 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
892 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
894 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
895 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
896 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
897 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
899 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
904 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
906 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
908 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
910 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
911 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
912 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
921 Guile always defines these to 0 or 1
926 and when either of these are defined to 1, also defines
937 ** The macro SCM_IFLAGP now only returns true for flags
939 User code should never have used this macro anyway. And, you should not use
940 it in the future either. Thus, the following explanation is just for the
941 impropable case that your code actually made use of this macro, and that you
942 are willing to depend on internals which will probably change in the near
945 Formerly, SCM_IFLAGP also returned true for evaluator bytecodes created with
946 SCM_MAKSPCSYM (short instructions) and evaluator bytecodes created with
947 SCM_MAKISYM (short instructions). Now, SCM_IFLAG only returns true for
948 Guile's special constants created with SCM_MAKIFLAG. To achieve the old
949 behaviour, instead of
953 you would have to write
955 (SCM_ISYMP(x) || SCM_IFLAGP(x))
957 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
959 This macro is not intended for public use. However, if you allocated types
960 with tc16 type codes in a way that you would have needed this macro, you are
961 expected to have a deep knowledge of Guile's type system. Thus, you should
962 know how to replace this macro.
964 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
966 Use SCM_INEXACTP instead.
968 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
970 Use SCM_REALP instead.
972 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
974 Use SCM_COMPLEXP instead.
976 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
978 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
980 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
982 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
984 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
986 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
987 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
989 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
991 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
992 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
994 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
996 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
997 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
999 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1001 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1002 programs. (Do not use.)
1004 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1006 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1007 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1008 to the distribution" above.
1010 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1012 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1013 arguments are now passed directly:
1015 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1017 This is an incompatible change.
1019 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1021 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1022 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1023 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1025 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1026 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1028 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1030 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1032 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1033 function in the init section.
1035 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1037 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
1039 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
1041 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
1042 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
1043 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
1045 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1047 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1048 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1049 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1050 stays roughly constant.
1052 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1053 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1054 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1055 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1056 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1059 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1060 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1061 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1062 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1064 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1066 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1068 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1070 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1071 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1072 initializes a new cell (see below).
1074 ** New functions for memory management
1076 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1077 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1078 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1079 cause aborts in long running programs.
1081 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1082 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1084 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1085 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1086 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1087 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1088 details and for upgrading instructions.
1090 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1091 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1092 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1094 ** New function: scm_str2string
1096 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
1099 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1101 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1102 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1103 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1104 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1105 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1107 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1108 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1109 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1111 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1112 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1114 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1116 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
1117 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
1118 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
1119 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1121 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1123 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1126 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1128 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1130 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1132 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
1133 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
1134 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
1136 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
1137 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
1138 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
1139 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
1140 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
1141 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
1142 gc-protected location.
1144 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
1146 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
1147 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
1150 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
1152 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1153 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1155 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
1157 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1158 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1160 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
1162 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
1163 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
1164 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
1167 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
1168 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
1169 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
1171 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1173 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1174 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1176 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
1177 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
1179 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
1180 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1182 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
1183 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
1185 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
1186 that they have been used by user code.
1188 ** Deprecated helper functions for evaluation and application:
1189 scm_m_expand_body, scm_macroexp
1191 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1192 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1194 ** Deprecated functions and variables for evaluation and application:
1195 scm_ceval, scm_deval and scm_ceval_ptr
1197 These functions and variables were used in the implementation of the
1198 evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code. If you have
1199 used these functions, switch to scm_eval or scm_eval_x.
1201 ** Deprecated functions for unmemoization: scm_unmemocar
1203 ** Deprecated definitions for iloc and isym handling
1205 SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK, SCM_IFRINC, SCM_ICDR, SCM_IFRAME,
1206 SCM_IDIST, SCM_ICDRP, SCM_ISYMNUM, SCM_ISYMCHARS, scm_isymnames.
1208 These definitions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1209 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1211 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
1212 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
1213 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
1214 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
1215 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
1216 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
1217 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
1218 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
1219 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
1220 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
1221 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
1222 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
1223 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
1224 sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
1225 scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
1226 scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
1227 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
1228 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
1229 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
1230 scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1231 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1232 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1233 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1234 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1235 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1236 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1237 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1238 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1239 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1240 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1241 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1242 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1244 ** Deprecated definitions for debugging: scm_debug_mode, SCM_DEBUGGINGP
1246 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1247 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1249 ** Removed macro SCM_MAKSPCSYM
1251 This macro was used for defining byte codes of the evaluator. It is almost
1252 impossible that user code has used this macro.
1255 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1257 * Changes to the distribution
1259 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1261 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1263 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1264 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1265 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1266 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1267 indicate major changes in Guile.
1269 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1270 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1271 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1272 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1274 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1275 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1276 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1277 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1278 micro version number.
1280 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1282 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1284 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1285 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1287 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1289 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1290 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1291 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1293 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1295 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1296 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1297 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1300 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1302 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1305 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1307 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1308 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1310 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1312 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1313 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1316 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1318 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1321 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1324 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1326 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1328 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1329 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1330 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1332 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1334 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1336 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1339 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1341 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1343 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1345 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1346 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1347 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1349 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1351 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1353 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1354 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1363 See README there for more info.
1365 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1366 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1369 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1371 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1373 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1375 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1376 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1377 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1379 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1381 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1382 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1383 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1385 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1386 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1388 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1391 (oop goops describe)
1393 (oop goops active-slot)
1394 (oop goops composite-slot)
1396 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1397 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1398 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1400 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1402 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1403 in the default environment:
1405 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1406 %read-line write-line
1408 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1409 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1411 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1413 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1416 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1417 can be used for similar functionality.
1419 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1421 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1422 it defines two procedures:
1424 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1426 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1427 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1428 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1431 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1433 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1434 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1435 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1436 write large strings.
1438 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1440 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1441 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1443 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1445 for complete documentation.
1447 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1449 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1450 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1451 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1452 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1454 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1455 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1459 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1460 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1461 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1464 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1467 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1468 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1470 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1471 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1474 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1477 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1479 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1481 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1483 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1485 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1486 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1487 Scheme programs easier.
1489 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1490 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1491 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1492 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1493 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1496 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1497 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1499 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1502 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1504 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1505 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1506 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1509 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1511 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1513 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1514 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1515 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1516 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1517 was also ASCII, for example.
1519 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1521 tag - no replacement.
1522 fseek - replaced by seek.
1523 list* - replaced by cons*.
1525 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1529 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1530 (define m (make-safe-module))
1531 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1532 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1533 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1535 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1537 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1538 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1539 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1541 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1543 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1544 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1545 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1546 from the issues related to the module system.
1548 *** New function: load-extension
1550 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1552 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1554 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1555 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1556 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1558 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1560 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1561 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1562 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1563 support dynamic linking).
1565 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1567 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1568 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1569 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1570 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1573 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1574 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1575 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1576 library and initialize it explicitely.
1578 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1579 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1581 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1583 (define-module (foo bar))
1585 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1587 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1589 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1590 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1592 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1593 (null-environment 5)
1594 (interaction-environment)
1600 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1602 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1603 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1604 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1605 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1607 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1608 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1609 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1610 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1611 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1612 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1613 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1614 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1615 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1616 one eval to the next.
1618 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1619 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1620 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1621 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1622 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1624 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1625 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1626 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1627 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1628 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1629 used in a lexical environment.
1631 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1632 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1633 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1634 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1635 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1636 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1638 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1640 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1641 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1642 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1643 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1644 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1646 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1647 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1648 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1650 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1651 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1653 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1654 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1655 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1657 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1658 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1660 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1661 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1662 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1663 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1666 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1667 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1668 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1669 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1671 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1672 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1673 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1675 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1676 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1677 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1678 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1679 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1681 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1683 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1684 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1685 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1687 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1688 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1689 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1691 See manual for more info.
1693 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1695 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1696 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1697 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1699 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1701 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1702 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1703 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1705 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1706 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1707 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1708 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1710 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1712 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1713 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1715 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1716 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1717 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1718 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1719 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1722 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1723 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1724 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1725 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1726 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1727 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1729 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1730 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1731 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1732 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1733 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1735 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1736 objects are usually permanent.
1738 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1739 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1741 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1743 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1744 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1747 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1751 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1756 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1758 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1759 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1760 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1761 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1763 ** New function `make-object-property'
1765 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1766 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1770 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1771 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1775 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1776 source properties eventually.
1778 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1780 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1781 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1782 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1784 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1785 will be removed in the next release.
1787 ** New define-module option: pure
1789 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1794 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1797 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1799 Export names NAME1 ...
1801 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1802 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1806 (define-module (foo)
1808 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1811 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1816 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1818 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1820 ** New function: port? X
1822 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1823 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1825 ** New function: file-port?
1827 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1829 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1831 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1832 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1833 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1834 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1835 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1837 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1839 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1840 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1841 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1842 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1843 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1846 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1848 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1849 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1850 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1851 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1854 ** New function: crypt password salt
1856 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1859 ** New function: chroot path
1861 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1863 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1865 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1868 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1870 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1872 ** New function: getpass prompt
1874 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1877 ** New function: flock file operation
1879 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1881 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1883 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1886 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1888 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1889 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1890 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1891 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1892 of the temporary file.
1894 ** New function: open-input-string string
1896 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1897 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1898 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1900 ** New function: open-output-string
1902 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1903 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1905 ** New function: get-output-string
1907 Return the contents of an output string port.
1909 ** New function: identity
1911 Return the argument.
1913 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1914 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1916 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1918 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1919 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1920 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1923 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1924 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1926 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1928 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1929 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1930 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1933 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1934 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1935 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1939 Use `identity' instead.
1945 ** Deprecated: return-it
1949 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1951 Use `string-length' instead.
1953 ** Deprecated: flags
1955 Use `logior' instead.
1957 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1959 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1960 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1961 port-for-each is more flexible.
1963 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1964 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1965 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1967 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1969 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1971 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1973 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1975 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1977 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1978 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1980 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1981 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1983 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1984 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1986 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1988 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1989 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1991 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1992 Use module system operations for all variables.
1994 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1996 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1999 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2001 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2002 The following bugs have been fixed:
2004 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2005 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2008 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2009 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2010 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2012 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2013 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2015 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2016 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2019 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2020 The expansion used to be like so:
2022 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2024 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2026 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2028 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2029 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2031 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2033 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2034 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2035 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2039 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2040 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2042 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2047 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2048 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2050 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2051 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2052 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2054 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2057 * Changes to the C interface
2059 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2061 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2062 with "_t". What a concept.
2064 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2066 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2068 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2072 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2073 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2075 *** C Functions removed
2077 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2078 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2079 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2080 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2081 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2082 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2083 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2085 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2087 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2089 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2091 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2093 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2094 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2096 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2098 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2101 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2103 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2105 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2107 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2108 Evaluation" in the manual.
2110 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2112 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2113 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2115 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2117 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2118 Constructors" in the manual.
2120 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2122 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2123 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2125 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2127 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2129 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2130 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2131 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2133 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2135 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2137 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2138 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2139 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2142 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2144 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2146 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2147 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2149 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2151 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2152 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2153 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2154 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2156 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2157 scm_primitive_property_ref
2158 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2159 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2161 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2162 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2164 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2166 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2167 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2168 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2169 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2171 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2173 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2174 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2175 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2176 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2177 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2178 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2179 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2181 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2182 scm_remember_upto_here
2184 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2186 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2188 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2189 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2191 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2193 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2195 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2197 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2199 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2201 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2202 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2203 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2204 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2205 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2206 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2208 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2210 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2212 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2213 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2214 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2216 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2218 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2219 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2220 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2222 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2224 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2225 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2228 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2231 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2232 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2235 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2237 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2239 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2241 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2243 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2245 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2247 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2248 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2249 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2250 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2251 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2252 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2253 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2254 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2255 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2256 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2257 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2258 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2259 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2260 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2261 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2263 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2264 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2265 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2266 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2267 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2268 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2269 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2270 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2271 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2272 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2273 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2274 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2275 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2276 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2277 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2278 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2279 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2280 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2281 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2282 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2283 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2284 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2285 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2286 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2287 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2288 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2289 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2290 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2291 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2293 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2295 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2297 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2298 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2300 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2302 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2304 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2306 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2308 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2310 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2312 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2314 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2316 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2319 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2320 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2322 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2324 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2326 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2328 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2330 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2332 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2334 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2336 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2339 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2341 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2343 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2345 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2346 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2348 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2349 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2351 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2353 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2354 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2355 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2357 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2359 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2361 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2362 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2364 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2365 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2366 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2367 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2369 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2370 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2371 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2373 Use the new ones from above instead.
2375 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2377 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2378 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2379 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2381 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2382 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2384 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2385 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2388 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2389 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2391 Use the new functions instead.
2393 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2396 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2398 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2400 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2403 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2405 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2408 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2410 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2413 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2414 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2415 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2417 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2419 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2420 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2422 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2423 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2424 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2425 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2428 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2430 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2431 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2432 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2433 inexact for an exact.
2435 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2436 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2437 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2440 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2441 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2442 accept an inexact argument.
2444 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2445 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2447 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2450 ** New number validation macros:
2451 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2455 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2457 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2458 scm_unprotect_object.
2460 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2462 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2464 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2467 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2469 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2473 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2475 * Changes to the distribution
2477 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2479 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2480 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2481 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2482 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2483 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2484 obtain these programs.
2485 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2486 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2488 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2489 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2490 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2491 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2492 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2494 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2495 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2496 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2497 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2501 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2504 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2505 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2506 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2507 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2509 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2511 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2513 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2514 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2516 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2517 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2519 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2520 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2522 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2523 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2524 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2525 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2527 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2529 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2533 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2534 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2536 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2538 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2539 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2541 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2542 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2543 number of objects of that kind.
2545 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2547 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2548 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2549 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2550 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2551 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2553 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2555 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2557 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2559 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2562 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2564 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2566 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2568 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2570 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2572 ** New command line option --debug
2574 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2576 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2578 ** New help facility
2580 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2581 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2582 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2583 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2584 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2585 (help) gives this text
2587 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2588 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2590 Examples: (help help)
2592 (help "output-string")
2594 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2596 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2598 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2599 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2602 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2603 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2604 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2607 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2608 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2609 use absolute filenames when possible.
2611 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2612 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2613 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2616 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2618 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2619 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2620 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2621 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2623 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2625 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2627 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2628 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2629 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2631 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2632 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2633 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2635 (read-enable 'positions)
2636 (debug-enable 'debug)
2638 ** Backtraces in scripts
2640 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2644 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2646 at the top of the script.
2648 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2649 The second enables backtraces.)
2651 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2653 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2654 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2655 substantially faster than before.
2657 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2658 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2660 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2661 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2663 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2665 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2666 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2667 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2669 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2670 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2671 when this hook is run in the future.
2673 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2674 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2676 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2678 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2679 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2682 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2683 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2684 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2686 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2687 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2689 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2690 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2692 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2693 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2694 in order not to need further allocation.)
2696 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2699 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2700 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2701 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2702 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2704 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2706 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2709 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2711 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2714 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2715 GC in percent of total heap size
2718 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2719 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2721 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2723 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2724 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2726 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2728 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2729 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2731 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2733 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2734 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2738 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2739 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2741 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2743 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2745 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2747 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2749 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2751 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2752 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2754 (simple-format port message . args)
2755 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2756 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2757 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2758 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2759 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2760 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2761 Does not add a trailing newline."
2763 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2765 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2766 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2768 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2769 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2771 ** Deprecated: list*
2773 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2775 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2777 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2778 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2780 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2781 is returned as result.
2783 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2785 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2787 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2789 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2790 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2793 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2795 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2797 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2798 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2800 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2802 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2804 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2806 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2808 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2810 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2812 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2814 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2815 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2816 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2818 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2821 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2823 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2824 the readability of argument checking.
2826 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2828 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2830 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2832 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2833 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2834 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2835 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2836 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2837 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2838 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2840 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2842 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2844 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2845 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2847 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2849 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2850 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2853 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2855 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2856 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2857 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2859 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2860 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2861 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2863 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2864 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2865 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2866 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2867 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2868 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2869 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2871 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2872 scm_end_input (object);
2873 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2874 ptob->flush (object);
2876 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2877 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2880 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2882 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2884 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2885 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2886 removed in a future version.
2888 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2890 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2891 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2892 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2893 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2895 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2896 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2898 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2901 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2903 in your configure.in.
2905 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2910 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2916 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2918 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2922 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2923 (define make-message string-append)
2925 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2927 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2931 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2936 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2940 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2942 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2943 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2945 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2947 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2948 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2949 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2950 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2951 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2952 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2954 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2955 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2956 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2958 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2959 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2960 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2963 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2964 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2965 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2966 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2967 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2969 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2970 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2971 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2972 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2973 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2974 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2975 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2977 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2979 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2980 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2981 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2983 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2984 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2985 KEY in the calling thread.
2987 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2988 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2989 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2990 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2991 associated with the key.
2993 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2995 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2996 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2998 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3000 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3001 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3002 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3004 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3006 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3007 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3009 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3011 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3013 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3014 returned is undefined.
3016 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3017 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3018 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3020 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3021 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3022 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3024 ** New C level GC hooks
3026 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3028 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3031 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3032 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3033 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3035 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3036 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3037 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3039 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3040 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3043 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3045 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3046 allocation parameters
3048 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3049 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3050 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3054 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3055 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3056 scm_default_max_segment_size
3058 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3060 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3061 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3063 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3065 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3066 object and count on the object being protected until
3067 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3069 The functions also have better time complexity.
3071 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3072 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3073 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3074 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3075 are no longer needed.
3077 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3079 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3080 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3081 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3082 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3084 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3086 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3088 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3090 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3091 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3092 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3093 until this issue has been settled.
3095 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3097 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3099 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3102 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3104 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3106 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3107 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3108 descriptors were checked.
3110 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3111 atomically written to a pipe.
3113 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3114 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3115 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3116 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3117 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3118 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3119 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3122 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3123 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3124 is changed without calling tzset.
3126 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3128 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3129 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3130 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3132 (define write-network-long
3133 (lambda (value port)
3134 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3135 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3136 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3138 (define read-network-long
3140 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3141 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3142 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3144 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3145 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3147 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3148 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3149 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3150 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3152 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3153 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3154 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3155 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3159 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3161 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3165 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3166 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3167 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3173 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3174 for a description of available commands.
3176 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3177 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3178 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3180 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3182 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3183 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3185 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3187 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3189 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3190 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3191 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3192 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3193 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3194 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3197 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3199 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3200 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3201 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3202 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3204 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3205 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3207 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3209 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3211 ** Readline support has changed again.
3213 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3214 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3215 to activate readline is now
3217 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3220 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3222 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3223 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3224 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3227 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3228 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3229 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3232 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3233 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3234 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3235 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3236 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3237 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3239 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3240 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3242 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3244 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3245 object it receives is the same string passed to
3246 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3247 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3248 string, not the suffix.
3250 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3251 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3252 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3254 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3256 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3257 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3258 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3259 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3262 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3264 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3266 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3267 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3268 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3269 appear from left to right.
3271 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3274 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3276 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3277 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3279 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3283 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3285 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3287 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3289 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3290 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3291 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3293 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3295 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3297 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3299 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3302 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3304 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3305 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3306 mentioning it here anyway.
3308 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3310 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3311 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3312 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3313 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3316 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3318 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3320 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3322 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3323 otherwise return #f.
3325 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3327 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3328 returned by `opendir'.
3330 ** New function: using-readline?
3332 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3334 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3336 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3337 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3339 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3341 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3343 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3344 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3345 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3347 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3349 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3350 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3352 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3354 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3355 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3356 documentation slots are not yet used.
3358 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3360 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3361 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3362 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3367 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3368 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3369 (string-append x y))
3371 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3372 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3374 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3375 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3376 be made in a clean way.]
3378 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3380 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3382 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3384 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3385 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3387 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3389 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3391 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3393 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3395 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3396 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3397 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3398 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3401 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3403 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3405 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3407 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3409 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3410 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3412 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3414 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3416 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3418 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3420 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3421 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3422 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3423 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3424 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3425 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3427 This should not make any difference for most users.
3429 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3431 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3432 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3434 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3436 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3437 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3438 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3439 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3440 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3442 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3444 It is now replaced by:
3446 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3448 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3449 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3451 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3453 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3454 This might change when we get the new module system.
3456 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3460 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3462 * Changes to mailing lists
3464 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3466 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3469 * Changes to the distribution
3471 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3473 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3474 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3475 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3476 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3477 you explicitly specify it.
3479 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3480 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3481 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3482 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3483 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3486 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3487 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3488 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3489 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3491 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3492 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3493 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3496 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3498 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3501 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3503 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3505 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3506 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3507 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3508 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3510 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3511 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3514 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3516 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3517 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3518 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3519 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3520 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3521 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3522 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3523 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3535 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3536 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3537 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3538 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3539 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3544 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3545 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3553 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3558 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3559 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3562 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3563 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3564 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3565 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3567 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3569 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3571 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3572 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3574 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3576 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3578 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3579 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3581 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3584 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3586 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3588 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3590 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3592 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3594 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3596 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3597 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3598 when the hook was created.
3600 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3601 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3602 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3603 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3604 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3605 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3606 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3607 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3608 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3610 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3611 the dlopen family of functions.
3613 ** New function `provided?'
3615 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3616 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3617 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3618 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3620 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3622 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3623 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3624 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3625 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3628 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3629 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3630 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3631 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3633 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3634 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3635 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3638 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3639 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3640 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3641 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3642 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3643 but with the flag set.
3645 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3647 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3648 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3650 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3651 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3652 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3653 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3654 available Scheme format implementations.
3656 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3657 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3658 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3659 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3660 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3661 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3662 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3663 output is to the current error port if available by the
3664 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3667 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3668 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3669 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3670 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3671 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3672 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3673 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3674 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3676 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3677 be executed at a time.
3680 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3682 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3683 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3684 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3686 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3687 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3688 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3689 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3690 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3691 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3692 general form of a directive is:
3694 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3696 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3698 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3700 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3701 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3702 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3705 Any (print as `display' does).
3709 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3713 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3717 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3723 print number sign always.
3726 print comma separated.
3728 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3734 print number sign always.
3737 print comma separated.
3739 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3745 print number sign always.
3748 print comma separated.
3750 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3756 print number sign always.
3759 print comma separated.
3761 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3766 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3770 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3773 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3776 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3779 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3784 prints `y' and `ies'.
3787 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3790 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3795 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3799 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3802 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3803 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3805 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3808 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3809 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3811 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3814 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3816 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3818 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3821 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3823 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3825 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3828 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3831 The sign appears before the padding.
3839 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3841 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3846 print N page separators.
3856 newline is ignored, white space left.
3859 newline is left, white space ignored.
3864 relative tabulation.
3870 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3872 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3875 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3877 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3880 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3883 converts by `string-upcase'.
3886 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3888 jumps N arguments forward.
3891 jumps 1 argument backward.
3894 jumps N arguments backward.
3897 jumps to the 0th argument.
3900 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3902 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3903 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3905 take argument from N.
3908 true test conditional.
3911 if-else-then conditional.
3917 default clause follows.
3920 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3922 at most N iterations.
3925 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3928 args from the rest of arguments.
3931 args from the rest args (lists).
3942 aborts if N <= M <= K
3944 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3947 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3950 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3956 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3958 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3960 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3961 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3962 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3963 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3964 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3965 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3969 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3973 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3979 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3982 Print a `#\space' character
3984 print N `#\space' characters.
3987 Print a `#\tab' character
3989 print N `#\tab' characters.
3992 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3993 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3994 must be a positive decimal number.
3997 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3998 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3999 be processed by `read'.
4002 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4003 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4004 be processed by `read'.
4007 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4010 prints format version.
4013 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4014 and format it accordingly.
4016 *** Configuration Variables
4018 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4019 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4020 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4021 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4024 format:symbol-case-conv
4025 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4026 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4027 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4028 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4029 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4031 format:iobj-case-conv
4032 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4033 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4036 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4039 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4045 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4046 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4047 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4048 `format' padding style.
4051 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4052 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4053 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4054 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4058 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4059 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4060 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4063 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4064 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4065 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4066 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4067 parameters or modifiers)).
4070 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4072 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4074 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4075 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4077 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4078 string-downcase! functions.
4080 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4081 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4083 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4086 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4089 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4090 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4092 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4094 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4095 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4097 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4098 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4099 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4100 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4101 would if STRING were input.
4103 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4105 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4106 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4107 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4108 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4111 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4113 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4114 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4117 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4119 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4120 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4122 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4123 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4125 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4126 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4127 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4128 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4130 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4131 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4133 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4134 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4135 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4137 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4138 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4140 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4141 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4142 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4143 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4144 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4146 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4147 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4148 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4149 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4150 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4151 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4153 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4154 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4155 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4158 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4159 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4160 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4161 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4162 the following grammar:
4163 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4164 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4165 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4166 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4167 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4168 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4169 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4170 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4171 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4172 last option in its combination)
4174 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4175 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4176 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4177 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4179 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4180 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4181 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4183 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4184 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4185 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4187 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4188 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4189 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4190 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4191 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4192 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4193 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4194 ordinary argument strings.
4196 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4197 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4198 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4199 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4201 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4202 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4204 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4205 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4206 - a required option is omitted
4207 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4208 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4209 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4210 - an option predicate fails
4215 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4218 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4219 (verbose (required? #f)
4222 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4223 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4224 (predicate ,string?))))
4226 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4227 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4229 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4230 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4231 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4232 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4235 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4237 It will be removed in a few releases.
4239 ** New syntax: lambda*
4240 ** New syntax: define*
4241 ** New syntax: define*-public
4242 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4243 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4244 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4246 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4247 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4248 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4249 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4250 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4252 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4253 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4254 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4256 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4258 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4259 and examples for `lambda*':
4262 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4264 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4265 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4266 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4267 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4268 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4269 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4270 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4271 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4273 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4275 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4276 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4277 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4278 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4280 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4281 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4282 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4283 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4284 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4285 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4286 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4287 and until the procedure is called.
4289 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4291 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4292 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4293 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4294 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4295 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4296 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4297 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4298 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4299 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4300 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4302 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4303 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4304 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4305 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4308 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4310 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4311 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4312 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4313 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4315 ** New syntax: and-let*
4316 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4318 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4319 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4320 (<variable> <expression>)
4323 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4324 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4325 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4328 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4329 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4330 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4331 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4332 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4333 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4334 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4336 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4337 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4338 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4339 shadow earlier bindings.
4341 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4343 ** New sorting functions
4345 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4346 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4347 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4348 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4350 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4351 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4354 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4355 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4356 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4358 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4359 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4360 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4361 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4363 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4364 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4365 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4366 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4367 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4370 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4371 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4372 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4373 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4374 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4375 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4377 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4378 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4379 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4381 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4382 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4383 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4386 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4387 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4388 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4390 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4391 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4393 ** New built-in random number support
4395 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4396 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4397 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4398 returned have a uniform distribution.
4400 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4401 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4402 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4403 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4404 effect of the `random' operation.
4406 *** New variable: *random-state*
4407 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4408 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4409 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4410 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4411 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4414 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4415 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4416 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4417 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4418 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4420 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4421 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4422 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4423 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4424 initialized using SEED.
4426 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4427 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4428 range between 0 and 1.
4430 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4431 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4432 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4433 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4434 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4435 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4436 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4438 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4439 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4440 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4441 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4442 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4443 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4445 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4446 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4447 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4448 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4450 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4451 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4452 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4453 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4455 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4456 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4457 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4459 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4461 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4464 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4465 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4468 ** New function: make-guardian
4469 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4470 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4471 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4472 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4473 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4475 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4476 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4477 one object if at all.
4479 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4480 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4481 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4483 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4484 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4485 read again in last-in first-out order.
4487 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4488 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4490 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4492 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4493 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4494 file position is used.
4496 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4497 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4498 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4500 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4501 redefined using seek.
4503 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4504 size is not supplied.
4506 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4507 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4509 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4510 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4512 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4514 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4515 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4516 and returns the contents as a single string.
4518 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4519 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4520 lists in serial order.
4522 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4523 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4524 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4526 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4527 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4528 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4529 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4531 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4532 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4533 and #f if an error occured.
4535 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4537 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4538 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4539 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4540 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4542 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4544 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4547 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4549 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4552 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4556 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4557 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4559 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4560 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4564 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4566 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4568 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4569 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4571 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4573 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4574 might change when we get the new module system.
4576 ** The smob interface
4578 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4579 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4581 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4583 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4587 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4588 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4589 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4590 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4591 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4592 will be freed by the default free function.
4594 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4595 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4596 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4597 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4599 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4600 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4601 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4602 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4604 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4606 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4607 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4611 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4612 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4613 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4615 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4616 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4617 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4618 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4620 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4621 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4622 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4624 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4625 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4626 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4627 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4629 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4630 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4631 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4633 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4637 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4639 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4640 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4641 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4643 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4644 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4645 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4647 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4648 a string port's buffer.
4650 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4651 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4652 function pointers which together define the current random number
4653 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4654 number library functions.
4656 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4659 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4660 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4663 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4664 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4666 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4667 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4669 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4670 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4673 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4674 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4675 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4676 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4678 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4679 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4680 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4681 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4682 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4683 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4684 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4686 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4687 by libguile and the application.
4689 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4690 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4691 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4692 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4694 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4695 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4697 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4698 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4699 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4701 ** Random number library functions
4702 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4703 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4704 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4706 The default random state is stored in:
4708 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4709 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4710 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4715 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4717 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4718 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4719 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4720 isn't a random state.
4722 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4723 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4725 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4726 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4727 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4728 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4730 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4731 Return 32 random bits.
4733 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4734 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4736 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4737 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4739 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4740 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4742 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4743 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4745 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4746 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4747 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4751 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4753 * Changes to the distribution
4755 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4756 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4757 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4760 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4761 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4762 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4764 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4765 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4766 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4767 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4770 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4771 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4772 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4774 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4776 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4778 *** Function: batch-mode?
4780 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4783 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4785 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4786 case has not been implemented.
4788 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4789 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4790 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4793 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4794 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4796 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4798 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4800 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4802 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4803 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4806 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4807 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4808 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4809 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4812 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4814 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4815 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4816 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4817 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4818 find those libraries.
4820 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4821 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4824 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4826 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4827 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4828 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4829 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4831 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4832 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4833 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4837 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4839 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4840 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4841 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4844 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4845 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4846 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4847 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4849 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4850 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4853 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4854 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4855 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4856 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4857 compiler where to find the libraries.
4859 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4860 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4861 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4863 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4864 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4865 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4866 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4867 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4871 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4873 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4874 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4875 internationalization support.
4877 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4878 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4879 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4880 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4881 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4883 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4884 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4885 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4886 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4887 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4889 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4890 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4891 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4892 any GNU mirror site.
4894 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4896 ** New function: add-history STRING
4897 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4898 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4899 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4901 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4903 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4904 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4905 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4908 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4909 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4910 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4912 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4914 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4917 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4918 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4921 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4922 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4923 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4924 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4925 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4926 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4928 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4929 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4930 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4931 of the form mentioned above.
4933 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4934 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4935 returned in the special `rest' list.
4937 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4938 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4940 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4942 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4944 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4946 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4947 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4948 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4949 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4950 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4951 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4952 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4953 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4956 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4958 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4960 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4961 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4964 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4965 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4966 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4970 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4971 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4972 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4973 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4974 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4975 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4976 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4977 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4980 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4982 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4983 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4984 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4986 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4988 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4989 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4991 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4992 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4993 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4995 Why do we have this function?
4996 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4997 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4998 primitive, and display it differently, and
4999 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5000 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5003 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5004 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5007 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5008 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5009 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5010 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5012 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5013 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5016 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5017 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5019 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5021 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5022 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5023 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5024 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5025 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5026 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5027 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5030 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5032 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5033 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5035 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5036 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5037 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5038 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5039 properly continue the print chain.
5041 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5042 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5043 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5044 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5045 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5046 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5047 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5048 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5050 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5051 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5052 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5053 safest to not check for these pairs.
5055 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5056 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5057 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5058 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5060 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5062 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5063 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5065 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5067 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5069 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5070 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5071 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5073 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5074 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5075 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5077 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5078 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5079 the following functions and macros:
5081 Function: make-fluid
5083 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5084 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5085 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5086 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5087 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5089 Function: fluid? OBJ
5091 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5093 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5094 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5096 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5097 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5099 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5101 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5102 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5103 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5104 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5105 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5106 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5107 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5109 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5111 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5112 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5113 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5114 should evaluate to a fluid.
5116 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5118 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5119 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5120 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5121 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5122 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5124 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5127 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5129 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5131 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5133 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5136 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5137 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5138 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5139 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5140 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5143 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5144 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5145 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5147 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5148 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5149 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5151 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5152 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5153 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5154 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5156 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5157 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5158 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5159 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5161 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5162 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5163 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5164 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5166 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5167 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5168 their revealed counts set to zero.
5170 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5171 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5173 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5174 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5176 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5177 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5179 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5180 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5181 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5183 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5184 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5185 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5187 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5188 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5189 default environment inherited by child processes.
5191 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5192 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5193 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5195 The return value is unspecified.
5197 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5198 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5199 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5200 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5201 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5203 The return value is unspecified.
5205 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5206 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5214 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5215 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5218 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5221 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5222 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5223 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5225 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5226 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5227 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5228 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5231 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5232 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5234 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5235 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5236 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5237 the `environ' procedure.
5239 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5240 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5243 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5244 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5246 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5247 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5248 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5249 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5251 *** procedure: times
5252 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5253 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5254 return a selected component:
5257 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5261 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5264 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5268 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5269 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5273 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5274 terminated child processes.
5276 ** Removed: list-length
5277 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5278 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5280 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5282 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5284 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5286 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5287 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5288 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5289 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5291 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5292 extra complexity it introduces.
5294 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5295 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5297 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5298 variable to any non-empty value.
5300 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5301 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5303 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5305 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5306 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5308 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5310 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5311 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5313 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5315 ** vector handling routines
5317 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5318 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5319 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5320 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5321 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5323 ** pair and list routines
5325 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5328 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5330 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5333 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5335 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5337 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5338 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5339 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5340 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5341 site-specific initialization code.
5343 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5344 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5345 initialization processes.
5347 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5348 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5349 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5350 initialized properly.
5352 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5353 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5354 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5356 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5357 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5358 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5359 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5360 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5362 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5364 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5365 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5366 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5367 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5368 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5370 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5371 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5372 which look like this:
5375 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5377 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5378 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5381 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5382 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5385 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5387 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5388 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5389 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5391 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5392 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5393 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5394 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5395 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5397 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5398 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5400 int (*free) (SCM port);
5401 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5402 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5403 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5407 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5408 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5409 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5411 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5414 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5415 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5416 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5418 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5419 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5420 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5423 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5427 struct timeval *timeout);
5429 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5430 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5431 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5432 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5433 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5434 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5436 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5437 scm_catch_body_t body,
5439 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5442 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5443 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5444 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5445 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5446 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5447 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5449 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5451 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5454 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5455 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5456 spawning threads from application C code.
5458 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5459 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5460 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5461 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5462 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5463 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5465 ** Removed functions:
5467 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5468 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5470 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5472 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5473 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5475 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5477 ** mbstrings are now removed
5479 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5480 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5482 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5484 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5485 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5486 their new names and arguments:
5488 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5489 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5490 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5491 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5494 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5496 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5498 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5501 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5503 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5504 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5505 pass a #f arg to catch.
5507 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5509 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5510 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5513 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5514 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5515 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5516 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5517 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5518 reclaim its storage.
5520 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5521 worrying that some other function you call will call
5522 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5523 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5524 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5525 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5528 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5530 * Changes to the distribution
5532 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5533 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5536 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5537 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5539 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5540 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5542 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5544 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5545 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5546 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5548 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5550 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5551 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5552 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5553 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5554 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5555 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5557 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5558 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5559 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5562 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5563 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5564 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5565 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5567 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5568 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5569 libraries to your link command:
5571 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5572 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5573 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5574 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5576 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5577 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5578 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5580 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5582 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5583 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5586 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5588 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5589 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5590 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5591 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5592 searched is system dependent.
5594 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5596 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5598 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5600 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5601 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5603 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5605 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5606 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5607 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5608 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5609 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5612 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5614 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5615 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5616 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5617 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5618 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5620 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5622 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5623 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5625 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5627 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5628 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5629 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5632 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5634 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5635 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5636 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5637 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5639 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5640 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5642 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5644 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5645 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5647 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5649 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5650 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5658 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5660 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5661 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5662 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5663 a more informative way.
5665 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5666 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5667 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5668 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5669 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5670 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5672 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5673 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5676 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5677 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5678 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5681 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5682 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5683 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5684 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5685 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5686 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5688 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5689 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5690 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5691 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5694 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5695 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5696 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5697 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5698 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5699 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5701 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5702 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5703 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5704 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5705 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5707 *** regexp functions
5709 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5710 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5711 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5713 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5714 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5715 with SCSH regular expressions.
5717 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5718 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5719 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5720 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5722 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5723 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5724 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5725 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5727 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5728 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5729 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5730 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5731 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5732 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5734 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5735 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5736 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5737 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5738 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5740 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5742 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5743 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5744 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5745 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5747 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5748 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5749 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5751 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5752 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5754 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5757 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5758 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5759 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5761 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5762 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5763 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5765 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5766 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5767 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5768 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5769 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5772 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5774 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5775 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5776 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5777 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5778 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5779 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5781 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5782 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5783 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5785 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5786 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5789 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5790 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5792 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5793 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5794 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5795 may be one of the following arguments:
5797 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5799 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5801 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5802 the regexp match is written.
5804 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5805 following the regexp match is written.
5807 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5808 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5811 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5812 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5813 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5814 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5815 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5816 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5818 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5821 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5822 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5823 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5824 written out to PORT.
5826 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5827 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5828 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5829 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5830 will return after processing a single match.
5832 *** Match Structures
5834 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5835 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5836 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5837 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5838 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5839 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5842 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5843 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5844 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5845 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5846 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5848 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5849 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5850 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5852 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5853 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5854 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5855 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5856 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5858 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5859 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5861 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5862 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5864 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5865 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5867 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5868 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5870 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5871 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5872 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5873 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5875 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5876 Return the original TARGET string.
5878 *** Backslash Escapes
5880 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5881 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5882 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5883 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5884 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5885 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5887 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5888 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5889 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5890 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5891 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5892 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5893 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5894 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5896 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5897 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5898 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5899 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5900 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5901 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5902 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5904 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5905 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5906 return the resulting string.
5908 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5909 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5910 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5911 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5912 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5913 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5914 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5915 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5916 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5917 translated to the single character `*'.
5919 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5920 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5921 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5922 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5923 consecutive backslashes:
5925 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5927 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5928 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5929 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5931 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5932 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5933 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5934 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5935 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5936 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5938 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5940 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5941 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5942 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5943 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5944 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5945 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5946 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5947 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5948 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5949 cumbersome escape syntax.
5951 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5953 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5955 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5957 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5960 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5962 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5964 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5967 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5968 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5969 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5970 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5971 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5973 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5974 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5975 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5976 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5977 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5978 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5979 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5982 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5983 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5984 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5987 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5988 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5990 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5991 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5992 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5993 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5994 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5995 installed, you can say:
5997 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6000 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6002 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6003 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6004 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6005 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6006 new dynamic roots and threads.
6009 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6011 * Changes to the distribution.
6013 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6015 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6016 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6017 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6018 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6019 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6020 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6021 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6022 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6024 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6027 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6028 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6033 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6035 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6036 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6038 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6039 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6040 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6041 the (command-line) function.
6042 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6043 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6044 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6046 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6047 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6048 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6049 command line arguments
6050 -ds do -s script at this point
6051 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6052 -h, --help display this help and exit
6053 -v, --version display version information and exit
6054 \ read arguments from following script lines
6056 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6057 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6059 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6062 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6066 (main (command-line))
6068 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6070 ekko a speckled gecko
6072 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6073 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6074 following list of command-line arguments:
6076 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6078 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6079 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6080 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6081 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6082 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6084 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6086 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6088 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6089 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6092 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6093 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6094 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6095 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6097 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6098 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6099 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6100 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6102 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6106 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6110 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6112 ekko a speckled gecko
6114 Unix expands this into
6116 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6118 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6119 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6121 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6123 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6124 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6126 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6127 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6128 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6129 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6130 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6131 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6132 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6133 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6134 it only terminates the argument list.)
6135 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6136 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6137 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6138 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6139 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6140 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6141 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6142 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6144 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6146 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6147 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6148 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6149 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6150 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6152 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6153 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6154 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6156 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6158 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6159 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6160 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6161 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6164 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6165 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6166 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6168 * Changes to Scheme functions
6170 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6171 and disabled by default.
6173 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6174 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6175 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6176 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6178 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6180 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6182 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6183 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6185 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6186 (read-set! keywords #f)
6188 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6189 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6190 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6193 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6194 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6195 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6198 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6199 support for Scheme functions.
6201 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6202 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6203 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6204 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6207 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6208 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6209 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6212 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6213 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6214 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6217 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6218 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6219 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6220 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6221 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6222 display the result as a prompt.
6223 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6225 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6226 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6227 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6230 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6231 procedure of zero arguments.
6233 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6234 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6235 argument is bound in the current module.
6237 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6238 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6239 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6240 public bindings into the current module.
6242 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6243 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6245 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6246 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6248 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6249 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6251 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6252 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6254 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6255 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6257 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6258 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6259 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6260 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6261 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6263 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6264 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6265 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6266 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6268 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6271 ** Changes to I/O functions
6273 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6274 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6275 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6277 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6278 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6279 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6281 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6282 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6284 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6285 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6286 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6287 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6289 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6291 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6292 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6294 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6295 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6296 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6297 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6298 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6301 'trim omit delimiter from result
6302 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6303 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6304 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6306 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6308 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6309 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6311 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6312 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6313 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6314 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6315 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6317 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6318 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6319 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6321 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6322 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6323 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6324 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6326 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6327 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6329 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6330 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6332 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6334 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6335 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6336 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6337 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6338 a delimiting character.
6339 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6341 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6342 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6343 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6344 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6345 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6346 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6348 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6349 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6351 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6352 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6353 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6355 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6356 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6357 the array to read and write.
6359 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6360 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6363 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6365 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6368 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6369 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6370 Values for COMMAND are:
6372 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6373 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6374 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6375 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6376 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6377 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6378 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6379 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6381 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6383 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6384 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6385 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6386 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6387 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6388 corresponding return set will be the same.
6390 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6393 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6394 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6395 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6396 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6397 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6398 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6399 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6400 special file being created.
6402 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6403 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6405 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6406 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6407 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6408 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6409 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6410 and originating address.
6412 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6413 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6414 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6416 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6419 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6420 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6423 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6424 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6425 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6426 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6427 this function returns #f.
6429 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6430 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6431 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6434 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6435 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6436 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6439 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6440 a valid STATUS value.
6442 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6444 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6445 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6447 Component Accessor Setter
6448 ========================= ============ ============
6449 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6450 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6451 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6452 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6453 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6454 year tm:year set-tm:year
6455 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6456 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6457 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6458 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6459 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6461 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6462 describing the host system:
6465 ============================================== ================
6466 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6467 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6468 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6469 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6470 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6472 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6473 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6474 system's user database:
6477 ====================== =================
6478 user name passwd:name
6479 user password passwd:passwd
6482 real name passwd:gecos
6483 home directory passwd:dir
6484 shell program passwd:shell
6486 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6487 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6488 system's group database:
6491 ======================= ============
6492 group name group:name
6493 group password group:passwd
6495 group members group:mem
6497 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6498 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6502 ========================= ===============
6503 official name of host hostent:name
6504 alias list hostent:aliases
6505 host address type hostent:addrtype
6506 length of address hostent:length
6507 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6509 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6510 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6514 ========================= ===============
6515 official name of net netent:name
6516 alias list netent:aliases
6517 net number type netent:addrtype
6518 net number netent:net
6520 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6521 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6525 ========================= ===============
6526 official protocol name protoent:name
6527 alias list protoent:aliases
6528 protocol number protoent:proto
6530 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6531 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6535 ========================= ===============
6536 official service name servent:name
6537 alias list servent:aliases
6538 port number servent:port
6539 protocol to use servent:proto
6541 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6542 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6545 ======================================== ===============
6546 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6547 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6548 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6549 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6551 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6552 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6553 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6555 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6556 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6558 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6559 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6561 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6562 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6564 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6566 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6568 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6569 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6570 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6572 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6573 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6574 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6575 return the remaining characters as a string.
6577 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6578 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6579 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6581 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6583 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6585 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6588 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6591 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6592 and returns the array
6594 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6595 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6596 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6598 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6600 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6601 symbol's value from C code:
6603 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6604 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6605 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6606 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6608 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6609 without assigning them a value.
6611 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6612 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6613 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6615 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6616 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6617 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6619 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6620 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6622 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6623 doesn't actually care about that.
6625 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6626 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6627 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6629 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6630 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6631 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6632 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6633 which we have just created and initialized.
6635 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6636 should one occur. We call it like this:
6637 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6639 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6640 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6641 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6642 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6643 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6644 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6647 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6648 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6649 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6650 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6651 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6652 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6653 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6656 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6657 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6658 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6659 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6660 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6663 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6664 scm_internal_catch, except:
6666 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6667 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6668 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6669 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6672 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6673 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6674 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6676 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6677 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6678 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6679 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6682 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6683 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6684 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6686 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6687 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6688 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6689 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6690 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6692 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6693 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6694 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6696 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6697 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6698 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6700 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6701 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6703 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6704 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6705 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6708 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6709 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6710 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6711 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6712 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6713 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6714 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6717 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6718 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6720 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6721 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6722 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6723 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6724 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6727 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6728 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6730 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6731 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6734 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6735 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6737 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6740 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6741 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6742 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6743 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6744 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6745 given the following arguments:
6747 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6749 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6751 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6753 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6756 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6757 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6758 command-line arguments.
6760 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6761 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6762 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6763 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6764 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6765 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6768 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6771 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6772 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6774 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6775 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6777 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6778 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6779 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6780 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6782 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6783 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6785 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6786 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6787 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6788 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6790 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6791 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6793 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6794 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6796 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6798 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6799 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6800 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6803 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6804 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6806 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6807 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6812 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6815 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6817 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6818 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6819 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6820 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6822 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6824 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6826 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6827 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6828 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6829 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6830 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6831 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6832 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6833 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6834 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6835 for more information.
6837 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6838 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6840 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6841 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6842 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6843 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6844 following two lines at the top of the file:
6846 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6849 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6850 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6851 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6853 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6855 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6857 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6860 (display (car args))
6861 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6863 (loop (cdr args)))))
6866 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6867 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6868 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6869 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6870 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6871 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6875 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6878 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6881 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6883 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6884 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6885 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6886 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6887 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6890 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6891 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6892 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6893 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6894 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6897 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6900 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6901 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6902 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6905 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6906 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6907 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6909 to see a backtrace, and
6910 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6911 to see them by default.
6915 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6917 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6919 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6920 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6923 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6924 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6925 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6926 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6929 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6930 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6931 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6932 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6933 functions which inspired them.
6935 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6936 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6940 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6942 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6944 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6945 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6948 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6949 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6950 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6952 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6953 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6954 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6955 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6956 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6958 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6960 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6961 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6962 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6965 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6968 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6970 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6971 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6972 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6973 above should serve their purposes.
6975 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6976 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6977 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6978 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6980 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6983 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6984 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6985 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6986 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6988 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6989 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6990 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6991 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6993 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6994 for the `read' function.
6997 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6998 to that of `integer?'.
7000 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7001 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7003 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7004 it simply returns the object's property list.
7006 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7007 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7008 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7009 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7011 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7013 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7016 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7018 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7019 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7021 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7023 void (*main_func) (),
7026 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7027 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7028 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7029 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7030 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7032 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7033 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7034 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7035 know which arguments have been processed.
7037 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7038 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7039 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7040 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7041 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7043 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7044 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7045 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7046 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7047 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7048 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7049 people from making that mistake.
7051 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7052 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7054 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7056 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7060 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7063 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7064 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7065 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7066 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7069 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7070 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7071 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7072 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7075 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7076 have been added to the Guile library.
7078 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7079 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7080 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7083 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7084 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7085 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7087 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7088 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7089 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7090 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7091 argument from the list.
7094 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7097 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7098 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7100 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7101 to a Scheme port object.
7103 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7104 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7109 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7111 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7112 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7113 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7114 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7115 code as a special datatype.
7117 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7118 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7119 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7120 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7121 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7124 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7125 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7126 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7127 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7128 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7130 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7133 Copyright information:
7135 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7137 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7138 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7139 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7140 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7142 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7143 of this document, or of portions of it,
7144 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7145 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7150 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"